Slayers: Three of a Kind
by Tiberius
Summary: Six months after the destruction of Sunnydale, Xander and Faith head to New York on the trail of a new Slayer and are swallowed up by a dark conspiracy! Complete!
1. Chapter I: Part I

**SLAYERS: THREE OF A KIND**

**Chapter I - Ante Up**

_New York City, one week ago..._

"What kind of name is Ariel anyway? Were both your parents smoking weed when they were watchin Beauty and the Beast, or somethin?"

The girl stared out the passenger-side window of the silver SUV as it hurtled through the driving downpour. Her hazel eyes traced a thick beading water drop, watching morosely as it flowed down and intersected with another silver strand. They mingled, became one, and for a long moment they flowed together in a single, unified thread. Then a rocketing raindrop blasted them into oblivion. She sighed and turned away, "The Little Mermaid."

"Huh?" asked the college boy, his biceps straining against his wine-and-gold letter-man's jacket, "Little what?"

"Little Mermaid." she said once more, her wispy voice undulating between the rattle of the heavy rain upon the roof of the racing four-by-four, "Ariel isn't in Beauty and the Beast. That's Belle."

"Heh, right, whatever. I always mix Disney movies up anyway."

"Disney?"

"Hey, here we are." the jock swung the wheel to the left and they exited the freeway and flew down a drenched side-street.

"Do you have to drive so fast?"

The quarterback grinned as he whipped to the right onto another street, "Goin' slow is for pussies. I always go as fast as possible."

"Don't you all." she mumbled.

"What'd you say?"

She sat up straighter and looked over at him with those doe eyes he'd fallen for the moment he'd seen her at the club, "I thought you said you had the perfect spot to look at the water."

He reached over and squeezed her bare knee, "Almost there, babe, don't get your thong in a bunch."  
_  
What a freeze-dried moron_, Ariel thought in disgust. She fought not to puke and instead ran her fingers up his thigh, "Then hurry up, stud, or I'll lose interest." she purred.

His eyes nearly popped out of his sockets. Or maybe not his eyes. He nodded emphatically and swung them down a narrow alleyway. A moment later they were through and bouncing across gravel, then dirt. Old shipping containers towered on all a sides, casting Gothic shadows in the now lessening downpour. Chip, that was his name to Ariel's internal disgust, hit the brakes and his truck-car? _I don't know what the heck these ugly things actually are_, she brooded. Whatever the gas-wasting vehicle was, it stopped with a squeal, an inch from the planked end of a rising dock.

Ariel peered out past the sliding windshield wipers and her eyes widened, "Damn, you weren't lying. This IS a good view." all of New York Harbor was laid out before her, illuminated by the glowing night-lights of Staten Island, "It's beautiful." she breathed.

Chip slid across the leather seats and roped a thick arm around her narrow shoulders, "It certainly is, babe. Bee-you-tee-FULL."  
_  
Ye gods_, she blanched, _kill me now..._

But she remained still as he buried his face in her shoulder-length curly-blonde hair and munched on her earlobe. His free hand wasn't free for long, it slid to her waist, then down past her short pleated skirt. Then back up under her short pleated skirt. Ariel waited until he was tugging at her underwear, then spun toward him in a rush.

Chip gasped, she moved so fast! Now she was straddling his lap and her arms were about his neck and she was looking deep into his eyes, breathing harder then even he was. _Oh yeah! She's hornier then I thought! Pay dirt, boy, pay dirt! Just like Dad used to say: drive a big truck and you will get-_

"Do you love me?" she suddenly asked, in that 'bend-me-over-please' whispery voice of hers that drove him crazy. It reminded him of somebody famous, but he couldn't place it.

"Uh-I...uh, love? Wha-sure! Why not. Hey, what's not to love?" he slid his hands up under her skirt again and gripped her firm ass.

She sighed and leaned in so close their noses bumped, "No you don't, you're lying. You know, Chip, I've heard of love at first site, but I think it's a myth. Like vampires." then she finally gave in, closed her eyes and let it happen.

The football player gasped, then grinned, "Oh, baby, DAMN! Ariel, I do love you-" _SMASH!_ his window exploded inwards, spraying them with squares of spinning glass! Chip screamed in fright and Ariel gasped as hands like talons caught her shoulders and yanked her bodily off her date and out through the busted car window.

She was tossed like nothing, flew ten meters down the narrow dock and smashed into a rusty cargo container, fell to the wooden dock like a bundle of dry twigs. Back at the SUV, Chip howled like a little girl as his door was pulled off it's hinges and tossed into the harbor, then he was pulled out.

"Ohmigod! Ohmigod!" he dangled high in the creatures grip as it held him up, like a side of beef.

"This buff kid's mine." rasped Chip's attacker over his shoulder, "You can have the girl."

"Will do, Tolar." replied the other two attackers now standing over the crumpled Ariel.

The one yet to speak reached down and caught her shoulder, pulled her up to face him. Her feet dangled a foot off the ground. "Time to die, little bitch!" his face twisted supernaturally and vamped into a demonic visage, complete with long fangs.

"We're sharing her, don't forget." the other moved in and caught Ariel's chin in a grip like iron.

Her hand flew up and caught his throat in a grip like DIAMOND. He gagged and the other gasped. She grinned darkly, "Boy did YOU pick the wrong car." she twisted hard and the neck snapped like dry wood. The creature detonated into brown powder and the other released her in shock, started backing up fast.

"A Slayer. Crap in a hat."

Ariel landed on the wet planks in a crouch, straightened up slowly, "Well now, I guess vampires DO exist after all. Go figure." she raised a dainty foot then brought it down with a crunch. Timber exploded upwards and she caught a foot-long shard deftly in her right hand.

She pointed the extremely makeshift weapon casually at him and cocked her head, "Front or back?" she asked in a voice very indicative of Marilyn Monroe.

"F-Front or back? What do you-" she charged forward in a blur and leapt, somersaulted over his head and landed behind him, spun and drove the jagged stake between his shoulder-blades. He threw back his head and roared, then imploded into dust.

"Back it is."

She heard Chip moaning and she whirled round, made to sprint back to the SUV, but a sudden piercing light blazed around her. She looked blinking into a spotlight shinning from an opening car door. Red-and-blue lights strobed and her sensitive ears heard the sound of gunmetal being dragged from hard leather holsters.

"Nobody move! This is the NYPD!"

Tolar the vampire raised his fangs from Chip's neck and looked round in fury, "I HATE being interrupted when I'm trying to eat!" but he grudgingly caught the boy's neck and made to snap it. _Guess I'm eating blue tonight_-with a burst of amazing agility Ariel leaped over his shoulder onto the hood of the SUV, spun fast on the wet metal and slapped her hands to either side of his head.

"You know, I too hate being interrupted I'm trying to eat." and she twisted hard to the left, breaking his spine in three places. He exploded and then the two pistol-totting cops had reached the car, they splashed to a halt and took fearful aim for her.

"Don't make a move, lady!"

"What, you mean like this?" and Ariel spun and jumped forward into a dive. She plunged into the black harbor water and vanished from existence.

Even after the ambulance had arrived, and the diving unit too, she never resurfaced...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Today..._

"Hey, man, watch the hands. I never put out on the first date, just so you know."

She was in the classic position: bent half-over, palms flat to the concrete wall, feet wide apart, as the security guard finished patting down her thighs. Skin-tight black jeans, blood-red baby-T with the word NYMPH stretched across her full chest, topped off with a short faded jean-jacket studded with rusty steel studs. With her sinful face and long wavy raven hair she was the perfect fusion of femme fatale and biker bitch. This wasn't lost on the guard, he was enjoying his 'duties' immensely, going about it as slow as possible. Now he straightened up, reached under her jacket and started it all over again on her torso.

"Hey there, pal, now you owe me twenty bucks." she said, resisting the urge to send an elbow flying back into the side of his head.

"More like five bucks." he muttered with a grin and she looked round with narrowed eyes.

"What did you just say?"

He winked and released her, stepped back and nodded to his supervisor, "She's clean. Well, at least she isn't carrying any hidden weapons or drugs that I can see."

She turned round sharply and glared, "That's what I done told ya. Now, are you gonna let me go or what? I only hit that stewardess bitch after she slapped me. She started the argument ya know, I'm totally the falsely accused in this. Blame the sky-ho, yo."

The portly guard observing folded his arms and scowled, "Watch your mouth, young lady. Okay, time for Doug here to check where he CAN'T see."

"Huh?" she cocked her head in confusion, "You been drinkin' Drano? Where can't he see?"

She looked to the left at the snap of a surgical glove. Doug licked his leering lips in anticipation, "Drop those tight jeans, Miss Douberville, and don't forget the undies. You're gonna have to spread those legs of yours EXTRA wide, if you know what I mean."

And Faith the Vampire Slayer narrowed her eyes.

"That's gonna cost you a LOT more then twenty bucks, boys, let me tell ya."

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

"No I do NOT know where she is, Giles, who am I, Dionne Warwick? I don't have ESPN you know." Alexander 'Xander' Harris nearly shouted into his cell phone, as he leaned against the airport wall, toying absently with the black patch covering his left eye.

His good right one was working fast darting about the busy JFK terminal, on the nervous look-out for security guards who might be coming for HIM now.

Xander was in excellent shape; broad shoulders and solid chest framed well by a dark flannel shirt, a waist-length grey leather jacket hanging down past khaki cargo pants. The ankle cuffs were piled over-top a pair of well-scuffed but vintage paratrooper boots he'd bought three months earlier in an army surplus store in Egypt. They were a perfect fit and it would take a nuclear blast to separate him from them now.

"The air marshal handcuffed her and dragged her away while we were in flight and then after we landed we had to wait twenty minutes while they hustled her off the plane." he listened for a moment then frowned in frustrated annoyment, "What was I _supposed_ to do, Giles, break one of those tiny Jack Daniels bottles and use it to stage a daring rescue? Are you mental? They would have gunned me down before I got two feet! Look, you have to make with the international intervention, use the powers of the Watchers Council to spring her, or-"

"Hi, Xander." an oval face framed with dark hair leaned into his view.

"Not now Faith, I'm talking." he waved her off and turned away, "Look, Giles, I don't care if you think you can't-Faith? Faith!" he dropped the cell phone and whipped back around. The toughened Slayer smirked and leaned back on the high heels of her zip-up leather boots.

"Who-what-where-" he was at a loss for words.

She snapped fingers before his eyes, "Calm down, Xand, you're makin' a scene." she looked back-and-forth quickly, then reached down for his duffle bag, "C'mon, we gotta book. I knocked two horny security boys flatter then week-old beer and kicked down three doors to get to here." she rose up, swung the bag over her shoulder and raised his recovered phone to her mouth, "No worries, Giles, everythings comin up roses. Later." then she snapped it oof, grabbed her new partner by the shoulder, and set off at a brisk jog.

"But-but-"

"Forget about your butt for now, Harris, the long arm of the law will be looking for me any minute now." an alarm klaxoned and travelers all across the airport looked up in apprehension. Faith scowled, "Or maybe they're already doing it."

"Great, what are we going to do now?" demanded Xander, "I mean, we just got here and it's already going all Replacement Killers." he pushed Faith's hand away and matched her stride, stuffed hands in his grey leather jacket and tried to look innocent as they rounded a bend in the terminal.

"You worry too much. I can't remember how many times I've been in trouble like this and I've always gotten away."

"Oh yay," he rolled his eyes, "that makes me feel even worse. Knowing my luck, they'll be lining up snipers on the roof any moment now."

"Yeah, most likely. Look, can't you walk faster?"

"Not without looking like a terrorist."

"That eye-patch isn't helping either."

He scowled, "Like me taking it off and showing the world my gaping socket will make everything better."

"Heh, it couldn't hurt at this point. It'll distract people from me, at least."

Then they were stepping fast through the sliding doors and exiting out onto the sidewalk. Yellow cabs and black limos lined the walkway and people struggled with luggage and carts in both directions. Faith moved to the nearest free cab and reached for the back door.

Xander caught her arm, "Um, not a good idea. Cabbie's keep records and we don't want to be traced."

She exhaled in anoyment, pivoted around and headed for one of the limos. She pulled open her jacket and puffed out her chest, then leaned down and tapped on the tinted window. It powered down and she produced her most slutty grin, "Hey, are you here for me?"

The driver looked up at her face, then level at the channel of her nearly horizontal cleavage, "In so many ways, girl."

Faith thumped him between the eyes and he moaned backwards into oblivion. She grabbed his cap and turned back, pushed it down on Xander's head, "Take the wheel, Jeeves."

He sighed and pulled open the door, pushed the former driver out of the way and slid in. He slammed the door and twisted the ignition, "Hey, Faith, what about your luggage?"

"You mean Tess Duberville's luggage. You can forget it, I already have. I've been meaning to break in that Watcher's Council credit card of yours anyway."

"Uh, how did you know about-hey, it's only for emergencies. Giles gave specific orders-"

She kicked his seat from behind the passenger partition, "Screw Giles and get this pimp-mobile in gear."

_I should have known it was going to be this way_, Xander mused darkly. He shifted into first and pulled away from the curb, as an angry knot of guards came piling out of the exit, looking in all directions. _I could be safely hidden away at the African safe house, supervising twenty plus teenage girls as they explore their new found Slayer powers, but nooooo, I had to take this assignment. Next time Giles suggests I team up with Faith, I think I'll just slam my head against the wall for three hours straight, it'll end up hurting less..._

Then he was pulling onto the freeway and losing himself amongst the noon hour traffic. Behind him, in the back of the limo, the one-time rogue Slayer put her feet up on the wide leather seat and popped the cork on a bottle of three hundred dollar champagne.

"Look out Big Apple," she proclaimed between heavy gulps, "here we come..."

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Faith stood on the dock, shading her eyes from the beaming sunlight, and stared out across the wide body of grey-green water separating Staten Island from the city. They had dumped the limo two hours and three bus trips ago. Behind her, Xander slowly paced across the trash-strewn ground, eyes searching for clues.

"You could help be helping me, you know, Faith. Instead of taking in the sites."

"I _am_ helping." she retorted in her obvious Boston accent, "I read Willow's hacked-up police report too, ya get? The Slayer did a Fugitive off of this peer, according to the file, remember? Yeesh, get off my case."

"Looking for the hole in the water?" he snorted, then turned over a lump of newspaper, "Hey, wait a minute." he stooped, came up with a tiny strip of yellow cloth. He held it up to the sun and ogled it with his one eye, "Hey, look what I just CSI'd up."

She turned back and stared him up-and-down. Medium height and wide of shoulder, Xander Harris was not what you'd call unattractive to the ladies, though the street-smart Slayer would be the first to disagree, more out of spite then anything else though, thanks to their mostly unfortunate history. Harris had wavy dark hair and a square face, and his build was solid. When she'd come back to Sunnydale nearly nine months earlier he'd started looking a bit punchy, but now he was toned and strong, no flab to be seen. _Guess African life beef-caked him up_, she smiled to herself. _Chasing after all those junior-Slayers must've been quite the workout..._

"Get hold of yourself, girl, or you're liable to make yourself sick." she muttered and set off to get a closer look at his find. Xander and her were ancient history and there was no way in hell she was going to even consider going down that road again. No more bad-girl antics for her, no way, no how. At least, none of the sultry kind. Kicking and punching and Slaying, now that was a different story altogether. But no more lovin' them and leavin' them in traction, heh...

She halted and peered closer, nearly going cross-eyed to see the strand clutched between his fingers. She snorted, "That aint nuthin. After a week, what makes you think it belongs to our girl vigilante?"

He sniffed it, then smiled, "The report described our mystery Slayer wearing a yellow silk blouse. And anyway it smells like perfume. I highly doubt any wandering lunatics are wearing Channel Number 5. Or whatever it is."

Her nostrils twitched in disgust, "All I smell is trash."

Xander tapped his patch, "My other senses have been going sorta Daredevily of late. I've learned to trust them."

She grinned and hitched thumbs in her belt loops, "Lookit Xander, playin' Sam Spayed. Next you'll be wearing a trench-coat and renting an office in Brooklyn."

"Spade. Sam Spade. Not spayed."

She shrugged, "Whats the diff?"

"A big one for cats and dogs." with his free hand he unzipped the canvas duffle hanging off his shoulder and dug within, came up with wooden box.

"Here." he handed the fiber over to Faith, then popped the lid and carefully extracted a blue crystal shard. It was tapered like an arrowhead and he stowed it's case then held it up on his palm, closed his eyes and began to chant softly in Latin, "_Reperire ab puera, crystallus corporalis, reperire ab puera, crystallus ab mens._" then he took the fiber back and pressed it to the transparant rock.

There was a tiny flash and the scrap was absorbed. A moment passed and then the shard began to pulse slowly, blinking electric-blue every few seconds. Suddenly it spun fast, accelerating up into a blur, then stopped abruptly, pointing back down the alley they had come from. Xander grinned and Faith raised an eyebrow, "I see Willow's been sharing trade secrets. Just so you know, Harris, if your working eye starts turning black, I WILL be putting you down."

Xander chuckled, "It's just a modified version of her Locator spell, the magic doesn't come from me, it's already embedded in the stone. I just Latin'd it to life and gave it a target."

He turned and set off at a brisk pace, "Come on, this will only last a few hours, and New York is a big city."

Faith stared up at the multitude of towering skyscrapers filling the skyline, "Tell me about it." then she set off after him...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

The crystal lasted longer then predicted. It made it all the way to 5:30pm before it went dark, but by then the pair had their target triangulated well enough. Xander carefully stowed it back in it's rowan box then followed Faith through the rotating door of the Plaza Hotel. Faith stopped and gawked at the sheer opulence of Manhattan's most famous stay-over. The immense lobby seemed to go on-and-on, lit brightly by an army of huge crystal chandeliers arranged in lines across the ceiling. Brass piping glowed, alabaster columns rose high, and the carpet was rich burgundy under her thick-heeled black boots.

She ground her toe into the shag and watched it smoosh dramatically, "Too cool for school, lookit that."

"Ahem." snorted a nasal voice and she peered up into the unamused face of a towering, red-jacketed doorman.

She grinned and shrugged, "Heh, sorry, man, just drinking in your Trumpadelic ambivalence."

"Ambience." he corrected.

"That too." then she started forward and caught up to Xander at the Reservation Desk. He was tapping the summoning bell. Finally he achieved the attention of a pinch-faced man in grey pinstripes. A gold pin on his breast read: Geoffry, Senior Concierge. He moved stiffly to the white marble counter and glared down his nose at him, "Yes?" he asked in a tone lacking any sort of interest. Or respect. Faith wanted to skin him instantly.

"Hi there." beamed Xander and he looked quickly around, his face radiating impressment, "Amazing place you have here, just incredible. I'll bet I'd max out my credit card just ordering eggs from room service."

"I tend to agree." replied the man.

"Anyhow, well, I'm looking for some information."

"The New York Public Library is nearby, sir."

"Heh, not really that kind of information. You see, I'm looking for this girl."

"Do tell."

Xander nodded firmly, held up hand just below his hairline, "Say this tall, thin but curvy with most likely nice muscle tone. Curly blonde hair and a round face. She may sometimes wear a yellow silk blouse. Ring any bells?"

"My belfry remains silent, sir."

Harris dug in his jeans pocket and pulled out a small wad of cash, peeled off a twenty and held it out, "How about now?"

The man stared at the bill, then back at Xander, "You _must_ be joking."

"Ah, so you don't know her then. Too bad."

"I did not say that, sir." and the Concierge waited.

Xander frowned, then counted through his cash. The man watched him then smiled thinly, "I do not believe you have enough in your meager 'stash'. Now, if you will please leave..."

Faith leaned in, "Let me try my way."

"Ho boy..." Xander sighed, then moved back a few steps.

The Slayer smiled brightly across the counter at the Concierge and tilted her head beguilingly, took his hand, "Ignore my pal here, he doesn't get it. He doesn't understand the value of the information you keep to yourself."

He looked down as she stroked his palm, then back up to her, swallowed and reddened, "That is correct. This is the Plaza, and our guest's privacy is of utmost importance."

"Oh, I'm with you, Jeff, I really am." she turned his hand over in hers and caressed the back, "And I realize a handful of twenties isn't enough to spread those lips of yours."

"Of course not."

She nodded, "But howsabout, a handful of... fingers?" and she gripped his index and middle digits and bent them backwards.

He nearly screamed, but Faith stopped just in time, wiggled her eyebrows at him, "I got yer attention now, don't I? You call for help or shout and I'll pop'em off like bread-sticks, you got me?"

"Y-Y-Yes!" he hissed in agony, sweat dripping down his forehead from his oiled-back hair.

"I thought I would. Now, remember that description my boy gave you?"

"P-P-Perfectly! Oh please, l-let go-"

She bent a little farther and was rewarded with a slight _crick!_ of bone. The man bit his lip and his eyes streamed. She leaned in close, "Not just yet. I want to get a good look into your eyes, just to make sure you aren't about to lie to me. You wouldn't lie to me, Jeff, would you?"

"Oh no-no-no, never-ever!"

"Good. Very good. You just might play the piano yet. Well, maybe in a year or two. But here goes: what...room...is...she...in?"

"918! 918!" he rasped, face turning purple. She let him go and he gasped, clasped his hand to his chest and fainted dead away, vanishing behind the tall counter with a thud. Faith turned away from the counter and nodded to Xander, "You heard the dork, let's split up. You take the elevator, me the stairs."

"Gotcha. Keep in touch." he handed her a compact walkie-talkie then they split.

A minute after they were gone, a younger coffee-skinned man stepped out of the office behind the counter, the gold bar name-tag on his burgundy suit read Amir. He glanced down at his comatose supervisor, then waved a woman over, pointed him out to her. Her eyes went wide and she ducked to check on him. Amir then stepped to the line of phones and picked up a receiver, dialed 918. There was three rings, then a melodic yet whispery voice said "_Yes?_"

"Miss Ariel? It's Amir down at Reservations."

"_Oh, hello, Amir_." she purred like a cat and he nearly came in his pants, "_How nice of you to call._"

"Two people, a man with an eye-patch and a dark-haired woman, they're on their way up to your room."

"_Really_..." she replied, her tone all business now.

"Yes, Miss Ariel. I-I just thought you should know."

"_And thank you ever so much, Amir. I owe you a...favor now._"

"Oh, thank-you, Miss! Um...can I, uh, have it now?" there was a pause, and then she whispered something incredibly smutty in his ear. His jaw twitched and his knees nearly failed on him, "Ohhhhh, yeahhh..." he dropped the receiver back on the desk without hanging it up and stumbled off to the employee washroom.

As Amir creeped past the circle of velvet lounge chairs set in the center of the lobby, a tanned man in dark glasses watched him go, then looked toward the elevators. A flesh-colored earpiece protruded from his left ear and he raised his wrist, spoke into his wristwatch, "I think you have company, over." he spoke low, "A man and a woman, coming from different directions."

"Understood." came the instant response.

**End of Part I...**


	2. Chapter I: Part II

_Rapidly ascending the Plaza..._

Faith hoofed it up the stairs, taking them three steps at a time, not even bothering with the wide copper hand rail. Passing the fourth floor she wasn't even breathing hard yet, her supernatural stamina maintaining her like she was taking a leisurely walk on the beach. But internally her mind was moving very fast, going over all the possible exit scenarios for the Plaza, and summoning her energies to the forefront.

Usually these Slayer interventions went well, but everybody working under Buffy Summers had a war story to tell, and Faith was no exception. In Gibraltar she'd ended up with three fractured ribs and a concussion thanks to a girl she and two other Slayers had been forced to corner. And the girl herself had taken three weeks to get out of traction, despite her own recuperative powers.

_Not gonna happen this time_, she decided solidly, _nope, no way. I'm going to play back-up and let Xand do all the talking, hey, it's what he does best. He's got a way with the gals, especially the 'special-powered' ones, that's why he's along for the ride. But if the chick gets physical, then that's why I'm here. And if that happens, then it's ass-kickin time. But it's not going to happen, nope...  
_  
Of course, just in case, she had a customized stun-gun in her jacket.

She rounded the sixth floor landing and headed up toward the seventh, still breathing fine.

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

The doors slid shut and at last Xander was the only one in the elevator. He unzipped his duffel and dug out a bundle wrapped in brown canvas. Before going to the location of the Slayer sighting, he and Faith had stopped by Grand Central Station and opened a predesignated locker Giles had arranged for them. They could never travel internationally with such items, but no problem, they had been waiting there for more then three months now, for the inevitable mission. New York was such a big place and the odds were high a Slayer would turn up there, and they had to be ready.

"And ready I am." Xander said like an action hero, as he unrolled the bundle on the floor. He withdrew a pair of long-barreled tranquilizer pistols, checked their magazines then thumbed off the safeties. He slid them into either side pocket of his grey leather coat, then stowed the wrap and produced another case, this one narrow and black.

"Saddle-up." he muttered through gritted teeth as the elevator came to a stop. The doors whisked open and he slid the black polycarbonate-lensed BLINDE sunglasses over his eyes, "Lock-and-load."

Fully channeling Neo, he headed off down the hall toward Suite 918.

Down the hallway and around the corner where Xander could not see, the girl he was looking for opened the door to the stairs but didn't cross the threshold. Somebody was coming up them, moving fast. Very fast. So she pivoted on her heel and headed back down the mirrored hallway.

Xander stood before the oak-paneled door to 918, hand raised to knock, but his lips were working silently. _Hi there_, he practiced internally, _how ya doing? Hey, do you happen to have jaguar-like agility and strength like Superman?_ No, way too cheesy. _Greetings! Do you hate vampires like I do?_ No, not that one, it came across really geekish in Detroit. Okay, hows about: "Come wif mee if you vant to liiive." he intoned in a deep Austrian accent.

A slim blonde in a powder-blue sundress raised an eyebrow as she strode past him, confused by the stark contrast between his gang-banger apparel and the somewhat geeky Arnold impression. Xander's cheeks reddened and he fought not to wince, "Heh-heh, Sci-Fi convention down in the ball room. I'm, uh, just getting into character."

She chuckled, "Uh-huh. Sure you are." then she turned the corner for the elevator and was gone. He watched her go and tried not to drool.

_Wow, would you LOOK at her. Forget about Natalie Portman, now_ that_ was a major honey..._

He looked back to the door, "Okay, no more stalling, can't have Faith arriving without me even have knocked yet. Hey, wait a sec, where IS Faith any-" at last his nostrils caught up with his brain and he spun about fast, took off at a loping run back down the hallway.

_Holy Hand-Grenades Batman! That was her!_

He whipped around the corner and the blonde looked up surprised from before the elevator.

"Hold it!" Xander shouted, barreling toward her, "You're her! That was your room! I recognize that perfume of yours from the docks!"

Her eyes went wide, then she recovered, scowled back at him and moved closer to the doors, "Leave me alone! Don't make me hurt you."

He ground to a halt a meter before her, threw up his hands to show he meant her no harm, "No-no, you misunderstand, I know what you are."

"What?"

"I mean, I know what you can do! My name is Xander Harris and I'm here to rescue you!"

She raised an eyebrow, "Rescue? More Sci-Fi? You need serious help, Mr. Harris."

He smiled, fought the urge to look her up-and-down and failed, "Wow, of all the Slayers I've had to initiate First Contact with, you're the prettiest."

_Who the heck IS this psycho?_ Ariel asked herself, _and how does he seem to know things he shouldn't? He's cute though, in a Chandler Bing sort of way...  
_  
"Slayers?" she asked.

Xander nodded, "It's what's happened to you, why you are the way you are. But you aren't alone, I'm here to tell you that. Me, and my partner Faith, I mean." he looked back over his shoulder, "Where the heck is Faith anyway? She should be here by now."

The elevator dinged and the girl turned away from him, "Look, I know you think you mean well, or at least the voices in your head are saying that you do, but you're all wrong about me. You've got the wrong girl."

"But-"

"Sorry, I have to go." and the doors slid back. But she didn't step forward.

Instead she stepped back, eyes wide.

Four burly men clad in grey-camo fatigues and black flak-vests burst out of the lift. They had dark shooting glasses concealing their eyes and were totting Heckler-and-Koch 53's. As one unit their weapons locked onto the young woman, four red dots painting her chest from under long silencer tubes. Xander did a double-take then reached for his own not-so-impressive weaponry.

"Don't even THINK about it." commanded a deep voice behind him and he felt the barrel of a gun dig into the back of this neck.

_An ambush_, Xander moaned to himself, _wonderful..._

Xander licked his lips and raised his hands, "Okay, don't be too hasty now, I was only asking the girl here for her phone number." _Jeez, where the HELL is_-the man behind him slammed the stock of his rifle down on the back of his head.

_Faith..._

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Two minutes earlier..._

Faith was two steps from the next landing when the eighth-floor door slammed open and bright light blazed forth, causing her to blink fast. Then three men in bullet-proof vests and grey-shaded fatigues hustled through, compact machine-guns gripped two-handed.

_Oh, yo, this CAN'T be good..._

Their dark-lensed eyes swiveled down towards her as she came to a jarring stop on the stairs. Without a word she did a 180 and made to bolt back down the stairs.

"Is that her?" said the first soldier, "I thought she was supposed to be blonde."

The one in the center raised a tablet-like black-and-chrome device and pointed it at Faith, it sounded shrilly, "She's one of them, either way. Shoot to disable!" the other two soldier's rifles came up fast.

Everything seemed to shift into slow-motion.

Faith flew down the steps, knees high, arms pumping. Orange fire exploded from the two long barrels and rapid-fire slugs sprayed down at her, erupting from the guns with a high-pitched ratchet, muffled by the silencers. She cowered as she descended and the bullets slammed into the walls and banister, spraying plaster and wood chips in all directions! She kicked off and vaulted six steps at once, landed hard on the landing below, spun hard to the left and somersaulted down onto the next set of stairs, dodging a second spray of gun-fire by less then an inch.

"She's getting away!" shouted the man with the device and his subordinates shifted their rifles to their right hands and took off down the steps in a loping run. They reached the bullet-ridden landing two seconds later, kept on going, using their grip on the railing to propel themselves to the next group of steps. And Faith stood at the bottom, waiting for them with a grin.

"What took you so long?"

They gawked and brought up their rifles. She yanked the stun-gun from her jacket and pushed it against the copper rail, thumbed the trigger. Too late the soldiers realized they still had their hands on it. Blue lightning crackled and they howled in agony as their bodies went crazy.

"Yeah!" she growled and poured on the voltage, "How'd you like it? I had it amped WAY up 'cause the girls I sometimes throw down with can REALLY take a beating." then she released the button and they fell over smoking and moaning. She chuckled, "That sucks, I thought you gung-ho's had real staying power. Guess not."

"Guess again." snapped their leader as he plummeted downwards from the landing above, he'd vaulted the railing, a move worthy of a Slayer.

He landed in a crouch before Faith on the steps and slugged her hard in the stomach before she could react, his brass knuckled fist delivering a brutal blow. She grunted and stumbled backwards, hissing out through clenched teeth. He sprang at her and slammed an upper-cut to her jaw, blood sprayed, then he spun fast and nailed her in the side with a swing-kick. The Slayer was knocked hard to the left and crashed into the wall, twisted, then fell backwards down the next set of steps.

The soldier grinned wickedly and pulled the Glock from his hip holster, charged down the steps after her sliding body. She slammed down on the fifth landing, rolled twice then slumped down on her face, unmoving. He clicked the safety off and prowled toward her, automatic trained on the back of her head. He reached her and nudged her in the side with his boot. She didn't move, so he holstered his gun and opened a case on his web-belt, pulled a syringe out.

He tipped the needle up and pulled it's cap off, plinked the ampule filled with amber-colored liquid. He crouched over her, brushed the hair away from her shoulder and tugged back her t-shirt, "Okay, kid, now you're going to sleep for a very long time."

Faith's left leg flew upwards and slammed into his crotch. He gagged and his eyes crossed, she looked up with a blood-smeared face, "Sorry, but it's not my bed-time yet, asswipe." she flipped over and swung her knees back, then delivered a savage double kick to his chest. The vest and his ribs crunched loudly then he was sailing backwards. He slammed hard into the far wall, went down and there was no way he was getting back up.

She climbed to her feet and leaned back against the wall to catch her breath, "Okay, what the hell have I gotten myself into THIS time?"

One of her friends back in the joint, Cindy Barker, had been in the Army before getting discharged and cutting one of her husband's balls off in a fit of rage. She and Faith had shared a few war stories and the one thing that Cindy had stressed about soldiers was that if you see one of them, there's always ten more around the corner. Her eyes widened.

"Jeez, damn, Xander..."

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

The dark-haired Scoobie climbed to his feet, rubbing at the knot rising from the back of his skull, "Uhhh, major brain damage happening now, for sure."

He looked up at the elevator's indicator and watched the numbers quickly dropping toward the lobby, then dived for the second lift and slapped fast at the call button. There came the sound of running feet and Faith sprinted round the corner and slid to halt before him, "I got ambushed, you?"

He nodded, then winced and wished he hadn't as pain welled through his brain, "Yeah, five rejects from 'Full Metal Jacket' made with the snatch-and-grab. They clocked me, then cuffed and blind-folded our girl. They're taking the express elevator down as I speak."

She looked to the other elevator, "In this one?" he nodded. She dug behind her back and yanked a curved fighting dagger free, jammed it in the slot between the doors, then bent them open a crack. She stowed the blade and dug her fingers in, wrenched the white doors open with a burst of Slayer-strength, "Keep in touch." she muttered, then jumped into the shaft.

Xander stared after her sullenly, "Now why can't I do that?"

_Th-Thump!_ The five soldiers looked up at sound of booted feet landing on the roof of the elevator. As Ariel peered back and forth between them, blinded by the hood over her head, they all raised their weapons toward the utility hatch mounted in the ceiling.

"If it moves even a millimeter, open fire." commanded the Lieutenant in charge, and he pulled their prisoner up against him, drew his automatic.

On top of the elevator car, Faith straightened up and looked at the doors whisking past. She pulled out her radio, "Xander?"

"_Roger-roger, good buddy._" crackled his reply.

"These guys are about to make an unscheduled stop on the fourth floor."

"_Gotcha, over-and-out._"

She rolled her eyes then clipped the radio back on her hip, looked to the doors again, then at the right moment kicked the feed wheel hard.

Crunch! _TWANG!_

Down in the car everybody stumbled as the elevator ground to a shuddering halt! The Lieutenant tore off his shooting glasses and glared up at the ceiling, "It's another one! Take her down!"

Faith was just wrenching the doors to the fifth floor back when the first slugs ripped through the top of the lift. She lept for the gap and yanked herself through, as the rapid-fire barrage tore up the shaft. She rolled across the carpet, knocking a pair of guests flying as she went, then sprang to her feet and bolted for the stairs. _It's about to hit the fan_, she realized, _so I'd better be there..._

"Open it up, do it!" ordered the Lieutenant, and two of his men slung their machine-guns and grasped either door, pulled them back with a clank.

Xander stood there grinning on the other side, "You know, the elevators in this place are way too slow." he had a gun in each hand and they _zinged!_ The two guards at the back of the car slapped hands to their necks as darts materialized there. He swung his arms wide to get the guys holding the doors, but one grabbed his arm and yanked him forward, the other swung a punch for his head.

And Faith caught it.

"I love a man in uniform." she ripped him from the lift and swung him in a tight arc, smashed him into the mirrored wall with a crunch of glass.

Xander was wrestling with the remaining soldier as the Slayer jumped into the car and stalked toward the redheaded one in charge. He was backed up to the wall, his gun pressed to the side of the girl's hooded head.

"Y-You stay back!"

"Lookit the big strong soldier-boy, hiding behind the little girl." Faith feinted for his weapon, ducked back as he swung it out toward her.

She ducked and weaved, grinned darkly, "They teach you that at West Point? To use civilians as a shield?"

Xander downed his soldier with a fast right-cross, then turned round to back Faith up, "No, I doubt they did. He'd be wearing a class ring. No, I say these guys aren't your run of the mill soldiers. More like a hush-hush Black Ops unit, operating without official sanction."

"You think you're so smart, but you know nothing!" snapped the soldier, panning his weapon back-and-forth between them, "This is a Government operation, you're committing treason by interfering! Now, I'm walking out of here with her-"

"You won't be able to walk for a year, pal, if you try and take her out of here." Faith moved forward, eyes glinting feral-like, "You get me? The girl's coming with us, end of story."

He swung his Glock back at her, "I will shoot you-" her hands blurred up and snatched it out of his hands. She stepped back and bent the barrel, tossed it over her shoulder.

Xander raised the tranq gun in his right hand, "Looks like I'm the one doing the shooting." and he nailed the Lieutenant in the left shoulder. The man groaned and collapsed, his prisoner stumbled forward.

Faith snapped her cuffs and Xander pulled off her hood, she blinked up at him in astonishment, "Who ARE you guys?"

A million smart replies from a million movies whisked through Xander's mind but all he could get out was "You've got the nicest hazel eyes."

Faith rolled her brown ones and grabbed them both by the arm, "We gotta vamoose, there's bound to be more of them." the two nodded and they all ran for the stairs.

Two minutes later the lobby door flew back and they hustled through. And instantly came to a dead stop.

All the guests and staff were up against the far wall, hands on their heads, quivering in fear. In the center of the lobby, twenty more soldiers stood at the ready, trigger fingers itching. Xander swallowed and pushed the girl behind his back, "This day just gets better and better. Next there'll be a rain of tractors."

"And me without my umbrella." said Ariel from behind him, then she looked round startled as a hand gripped her shoulder from behind. A figure in a dark cloak, his face concealed in shadow, stood back in the stairwell.

"Who are you?" she whispered.

"Shhh..." he hissed, and pulled her in with him, shut the door silently.

"But they helped me! I just can't leave-"

"You won't be. It's just not your time just yet, but soon." he said, his voice muffled but clear, "But you must get ready, my dear." and he turned away and began ascending the stairs. As he went he stepped over a bundle of grey camo clothing, topped with a vest and machine-gun.

Ariel gaped, it must have been taken from one of the soldiers the one-eyed man and his super-friend had beaten up._ I get it, I get it! But how did he know?_

"You!" shouted the squad's commander back in the lobby, "The man with the eye patch! Step away from the women. We don't want you, this is your one chance to leave."

"Sorry, pal, but we're a package deal!" Xander shouted back.

"Your mistake then."

"No, it's yours!" and Faith grabbed up an arm chair from the wall and threw it at them. The soldiers fired, then it landed, taking out four of them.

She was already running and nearly reached them before a bullet slammed into her right shoulder, another hit her in the stomach.

"FAITH!" yelled Xander and he ran to her. She tottered around, fell to her knees, her face white.

"Well...that wasn't the...smartest thing I've...ever...done..." and she fell into his arms.

There was a flurry of movement and they were surrounded. Xander had a hood yanked over his head and his hands were cuffed. They lifted Faith onto a stretcher and injected her in the arm with a needle. She moaned then was silent. The Captain looked round fast, "Hey, where'd the third one go?"

But she had vanished. He glared at his men but a quick search of the lobby and stairs turned up nothing. The remaining soldiers from the other floor arrived, either on their own or carrying disabled brethren. There had been no casualties but several were in for a long recovery.

"We've stayed too long as it it, but we've captured one Slayer and her confederate." said the commander, "Alright, men, pack it in and move out!"

With a rush of ordered movement they were gone, leaving behind a crowd of shocked and fearful people...

**End of Part II...**


	3. Chapter I: Part III

_Three hours later..._

He heard the sound of a door being opened then he was marched through and forced to sit in a steel-backed chair. The hood was pulled from his head and he blinked at the harsh light beaming down from above.

Xander looked back and forth as he set his handcuffed hands on the scratched metal table-top. He was in a stark grey chamber with one mirrored wall, sitting across the table from an older man with a greying crewcut. He wore horn-rimmed glasses and a black military uniform. There were no rank or assignment insignias of any kind on it, but he had the clear bearing of an Officer. He opened a manila file-folder and scanned it critically, then looked to the prisoner, "Name?"

"Homer J. Simpson."

The man scowled and snapped the folder shut, "This isn't the place for bad humor-"

"I beg to differ."

"Do you realize how much trouble you're in, son?"

"No. But that's fine, I'm always in some kind of trouble."

"Not like this, son, this is way beyond illegally hunting vampires." he dropped Xander's duffel on the table between them and began pulling items out.

Xander raised an eyebrow, "What, you need a license now? Jeez, you Government types will find a way to tax anything."

"Holy water, stakes, garlic-a...uh, what is this?" he held up what looked like a small streamlined silver vacuum cleaner.

"Hey, careful with that, I paid like eight hundred bucks on eBay! An authentic phaser-II, actually used on-screen in **First Contact**." said Xander proudly, "It has working stun and disintegrate settings, and blinky green lights. Since I was visiting New York and all, I was going to have it appraised-"

"How old are you exactly?"

"Didn't you know? We Simpsons never age."

The soldier returned the items to his bag, then leaned forward, "I'm going to only ask this once, and you better give me a straight answer, understood?"

"Sure, why not. But first, is my friend okay? The one you SHOT for no good reason?" his eyes flashed and the man smiled grimly.

"She lives but you won't be seeing her ever again, that I can promise."

Xander leaned forward and his eye narrowed dangerously, "I wouldn't be putting any money on that wager, buddy."

The soldier ignored his threat, "Where is the other Slayer you were traveling with? And don't try to tell me you don't know what a Slayer is."

"I don't know what a Slayer is."

_Wham!_ the soldier behind Xander punched him in the back of the skull. His head slammed downwards into the table with a meaty thump.

He grunted and sat back up slowly, the Officer glaring across at him.

"I warned you not to say that."

"What can I say, I have a problem with the authority figures. I think it dates back to when my first Principal was eaten by hyena-people."

"Look, son, this can go either bad or _very_ bad for you. You need to make a decision."

"Hmmm, I think I'll take very bad for two hundred, Alex."

"Again, it's your choice to make." he nodded to the guard and he opened the door and leaned out, called for somebody. A moment later a redhaired woman entered, dressed as they were in a non-descript black uniform. Xander looked her up and down appreciatively, "You know, I like how you've got the whole 'SPECTRE-slash-Area 51' thing going for you. All you need now is some truth serum to make me talk and I'll totally buy your atmosphere."

"Nurse, administer the sodium pentethol."

She opened the black case she was carrying and withdrew a syringe, pulled off it's cap. Xander stared at it wide-eyed, "Hey, on second thought, the whole dark conspiracy motif is working perfectly, no need for props."

She lowered it and tugged up his sleeve. He made to pull away, but the guard pressed a pistol to his temple. He slumped back into his seat and gave in, "Well, I guess I'm about to get real chatty."

The Officer smiled, "You would be correct in that guess."

"Maybe not." said the nurse, and she jammed the needle into the side of the Officer's neck, thumbed the plunger.

He yelped and slapped at his throat, fell out of his chair gagging. The soldier with the gun gaped at her in surprise, then swung the weapon up to aim at her. She grinned warmly and cocked her head, "Now, you don't want to shoot me, do you?"

Xander could swear her eyes seemed to glow soft pink, just for in instant.

"I-I-I-" stammered the guard as she crossed the room to press up against him.

"That's right, you'd never hurt me. Because you _love_ me, don't you?"

"I, uh..." and he smiled dully, his eyes hazy with lust and adorement, "Of COURSE I love you. What's you name again?"

She traced a finger down his nose and kissed his lips gently, "What would you like my name to be?"

"Um...Mommy?"

"Ugh," she grimaced, "one of those." then she swung back a fist and smashed him in the mouth, sending him stumbling backwards.

She ducked, bent double, and high-kicked him in the throat, then whipped back up, spun in a circle and rammed an elbow into his solar plexus. He squealed thinly and fell to his knees, she yanked the gun from his loose fingers and whipped it across the back of his head. He went down the rest of the way and she scrambled the keys off his belt, turned back to the astonished Xander.

"Who-what-where-"

She smiled and her head rippled like it was liquid, then it reformed into the woman he'd met back at the Plaza, complete with her curly blonde hair and hazel eyes. She unlocked the cuffs and pulled him to his feet. She handed him his duffel, "Surprised?"

"In ways you cannot comprehend. You aren't a Slayer, are you?"

"I don't know. What's a Slayer?"

"You fight like one, but that shape-shifting trick-"

She frowned, "I don't like to use it, but I had no choice. When they took you prisoner back at the Plaza I...uh..." she hesitated for a moment, as if reluctant to say something, then continued, "Um, all I could think to do was borrow a uniform and make myself look like one of them. Look, we'd better get going if we're going to find your friend before the alarm goes off."

"I couldn't agree more." and they headed for the door. But he stopped for a moment and looked back at the Officer quaking on the floor beside the table. He grinned darkly, "But before we go, maybe I can get some inside information on her location."

"I...will...I will...tell...you _nothing_..." slurred the man as Xander kicked him over onto his back.

"Oh, I think you're way wrong there. Remember, you're all pentetholy."

"No...I won't tell...tell you...anything..."

"Where's my friend?"

"Two floors d-down...second door...door on the right..." the older man was smiling now, his eyes hooded thanks to the lowering of his brain functions.

"And what's the quickest, least secured way out of this place?" asked Xander.

"There's a...a...sewer access in the...basement, behind the...power plant..."

And Xander leaned close, so close their noses touched, "Last question: Who the hell ARE you guys?"

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Faith woke up as the door to her cell crashed open. She looked up groggily from her bunk as a soldier flew backwards into the narrow chamber and hit the wall. The girl from the hotel stood framed there, and when the guard shook his head and tried to rise, she stepped forward and kneed him in the forehead. There was a crack and he flipped over backwards, went down hard. Faith grinned weakly and tried to stand, "I like your style."

"Faith!" Xander entered quickly, Glock pistol gripped in one hand, and he slid an arm around her waist, helped her up.

"Makin with the rescue, I like it." together they trooped out of the cell and the girl followed, looked back-and-forth then gestured toward a door at the other end of the hallway.

"Come on! We've got to get to the basement."

They headed forward and were almost there when a pair of soldiers stepped through the stairs exit, saw them and did a double-take. The girl charged with a yell, caught their rising rifles by the barrels and yanked them away. She tossed the weapons, swung back with both fists, then punched them both in the stomach. They exhaled painfully and fell over, she delivered a pair of elbows to the tops of their heads as they plummeted, sealing the deal.

"She's quite the Slayer." Faith stated in reluctant respect, as Xander helped her past the fallen men.

"Actually, she's not a Slayer." he reached down as they went by and snagged the chromed black scanning device from one of the soldier's belts, stuck it in his jacket for later examination. Then they were on the stairs and started down them, "Sure, Ariel can to the fighty thing, but she can also morph her appearance and make men love her with just a look." he beamed down the flight at their retreating savior.

Faith scowled, "I see she's used the power on you."

"Not that I know of, no, I don't think she did. But isn't she hot?"

"Oh jeez, somebody shoot me. Oh, wait, too late..."

They reached the basement and found Ariel pulling at a door behind a massive glowing round machine that disappeared into the ceiling. They reached her and she looked round with a frown, "I'm strong, but not THAT strong."

Faith shrugged off Xander and caught hold of the wheel set into the iron hatch, "Let me try." and with a grunt she tore it free, dropped it heavily to the ground.

"Wow!" it was Ariel's turn to be impressed.

Xander nodded, "See, THAT'S what a Slayer is."

"Very cool. And she's bullet-proof too?"

"Nope, but that would have been nice." Faith rubbed painfully at her stomach, blood seeping from the bandage around her shoulder, "But I can take a beating and heal quickly."

"Sorry, I don't have that ability." Ariel looked to Xander, "And what powers do you have?"

"I can pat my head and rub my stomach at the same time. Also, I have lousy depth-perception."

"Oh. I see."

"Don't count him out, he's a super-trooper." Faith gripped his shoulder for a second and they shared a look, then they all piled through the door. A minute later they were hustling through the darkness, Xander in the lead with a flashlight from his bag meagerly lighting their way...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Ten hours later, at a seedy motel on the outskirts of the city..._

The door to the kitchenette swung back and Ariel came though backwards, carrying a tray. She turned around and crossed the thinning carpet, set the bowl of Chunky soup down on the coffee table. Faith shifted under her blanket and smiled thinly, "Thanks, I'm starving."

"Don't sit up. Maybe Xander can feed you when he gets back."

She looked at her curiously, "Why would he-huh?"

Ariel sat down across from her, "Well, if I had a nice boyfriend like that, then I'm sure he'd want to-"

"What? NO! Harris AIN'T my boyfriend." she chuckled then winced as her stomach flared with pain, "Uhh, don't make me laugh, it hurts too much."

The blonde stared guiltily, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. I just thought he was."

"Well, he's not. We're both free agents and we like it that way." she shifted into a sitting position and picked up the spoon.

Ariel frowned, "Oh, he's not interested in getting involved in a relationship."

"No, not like that, I mean he doesn't want to get involved with _me_." she gulped down some of the brown stew, then looked up, "Well, of course he WANTS to get with me, I mean, what sane guy wouldn't?"

"Of course, I didn't mean-"

Faith pointed the spoon at her emphatically, "You sayin there's sumthin wrong with me? That I'm not mountalicious or something? 'Cause I am, all the boys want to get with this!"

Ariel waved her surrender, "I didn't mean that! I'm sorry, I'm just not used to talking like this with another girl."

"Damn right you didn't mean it." she swallowed another spoonful, then narrowed her gaze, "What's your deal, anyway? I've seen creatures who can shape-shift, demons and the like, but you don't act demonic, or at least you haven't yet."

Ariel paled, then looked down at her hands, "Actually... I am a demon. Or at least, half a demon."

Faith nodded, "Heh, thought it went like that somehow. But I've never heard of a demon who could make guys go all love-slave."

"A Succubus can."

"A suck your what?"

"It's a long story..." Ariel said quickly, then shifted uncomfortably, "What's yours? You're a Vampire Slayer, I get that, but you and Xander are looking for more Slayers?"

"We-" she was interrupted by the motel room's door opening and Xander stepped back in, folding up his cell phone as he came. His face looked grim and he closed the door again, then slumped down in the other free chair.

"How'd she take it?" asked Faith.

"Not well. And who could blame her?"

"How did who take what?" asked Ariel.

He rubbed his forehead, "Our boss. Well, she's not really our boss, but she calls the shots. Sometimes, I mean. Well, when it gets hairy-"

"Xander!" growled Faith, "What's the 411?"

"I confrenced with her and Giles and we agreed we aren't leaving New York just yet. They want us to try and figure out what's going on."

She frowned, "But how can we do that? We must have gotten lost six times down in the sewers before we found a way out. There's no way we'll ever find our way back to that secret soldier facility."

Xander shrugged, "Then we can just keep doing what we were sent here to do: seek out other Slayers. Our paths are bound to cross with them eventually, seeing how they're doing the same thing we are."

Ariel stared at him fearfully, as Faith nodded and returned to her meal.

"That's it then?" the half-demon girl asked, "Just like that? The two of you against a government conspiracy to kidnap super-powered girls you haven't even met? That's insane!"

He grinned, "Hey, I never said we weren't crazy."

"I know YOU'RE certifiable, Xander, that's for damn sure." slurped Faith, "But hey, color me Cuckoo's Nest, because I aint leaving either until we know what's going down in the Big Apple."

Ariel shrugged and sat back, "Well then, madness must be catching, because I'm with you guys too. This city is my territory and no way is some psycho army squad going to be allowed to stalk the streets."

Faith looked at Xander as if to say, can we trust her? He shrugged, then looked to her, "Ariel, are you sure? These guys mean serious business."

She nodded firmly, "I'm sure. Anyway, you can use me."

"That's for darn sure-"

"Xander..." hissed Faith dangerously.

"-because you know the city so well, heh-heh, yeah." he grinned weakly then leaned back in his chair, "Okay, then it's three against the newly-reformed Initiative..."

_They don't even have a friggin chance_, he grinned...

**End of Chapter I...**


	4. Chapter II: Part I

**SLAYERS: THREE OF A KIND**

**Chapter II - The Hand You're Dealt**

_Bright and early, in that den of corruption they call New York City..._

"And you can CRAM your apology where the sun don't shine!"

With that, Olivia Lowsley, a seventeen year-old Junior at nearby Yorke Preparatory, slammed the passenger-side door of the mauve Volkswagen beetle so hard the window cracked, then stalked off down the West 77th Street sidewalk, clutching her steaming paper cup. Her blue school-issue pack bounced against her shoulder-blades and her pleated tartan skirt swished angrily about her knees.

"Fine then!" shouted her now ex-boyfriend Mark from his car, then he gunned the engine and surged forward, matching her angry pace, "It's not like I had any fun being with you, in fact I think you gave me frostbite!" he shouted as he drove.

"Good thing you had Sarah Gelson to warm you up then!" she shouted back.

He scowled through the window, "I wouldn't have needed her if you weren't so knee-knocked. I mean it's the 21st Century now, you can take the chastity belt off every now and then."

She responded with the finger. Mark returned it double, nearly lost control of his car, then grabbed the wheel again and pulled away from the curb, "Fine then! Be that way!"

"FINE!" she howled back and threw the cup after him. It struck the rear window and erupted into a foamy-brown mass. The beetle screeched to a stop for a long moment as if he was going to come back, then pulled away again with a squeal of tires. It zoomed off and turned left onto Central Park West, then was gone.

"Fine..." Olivia muttered sullenly to herself, then stuffed hands in the pockets of her dark blue peat coat and headed for the crosswalk, head down and welling with embarrassment. People on both sides of the street were staring at her now so she doubled her pace and then was across and passing through the gate into Central Park itself. The vast grounds spread out before her, but she saw none of it.

"Stupid-assed Mark, he owes me a Caramel Macchiato." she consulted her mental map but the anger and resentment bubbling through her psyche was disrupting it's materialization in her mind so she couldn't remember if there was another Starbucks nearby.

"Hell, there's always another Starbucks nearby, I'm in the center of friggin' New York City."

She had exited West Drive now and was passing Lake Pavilion, as the thick forest rose up before her. A moment later the way had thinned and she was alone in the thready early morning light of the Bramble. Spying an opening on the left, she exited the gravel path and disappeared into the shrubs and trees.

She tracked through the underbrush for five minutes, then emerged into a small sheltered meadow, highlighted by a rising crag of grey stone in the center. She stepped up to it and swung off her backpack, dumped in on the ground beside the rock and unzipped it. She pulled out a plaid thermos of coffee, made sure the lid was tight, then proceeded to slam it down, over-and-over, onto the solid rock.

"Bastard!" _wham!_ "Sonofabitch!" _clang!_ "Cheating on me with that whore!" _bang!_ "I'll SHOW YOU, YOU STUPID DICK!" _CRUNCH!_

The final impact cracked it and the cylinder burst in her hands. With a sob she dropped the ruined thermos and sat down on the stone, put her head in her coffee-stained hands and wept quietly.

_It's not fair_, she sobbed inside, _it's just not fair, why'd he do it? What's Sarah Gelson got that I don't have? Damn, yeah. She's got Mark, that's what shes got...  
_  
The cool breeze whisping around her bobby-socked legs seemed to rise for a moment, and plucked at her tartan kilt. She didn't look up though, still lost in the throes of the betrayal.

Behind her, shrouded in the depths of the thick trees, a man named Johnny Mustow stared at the back of her dark-haired head and fingered the rusty hunting knife protruding from his mud-stained jeans.

_Perfect, just perfect..._

At thirty-one years of age, Johnny had already amassed an impressive arrest jacket for aggravated assault and robbery, and by all rights he should be cooling it in the can for the next three years after braining an eighty-year old lady for her food stamps. But his usually shiftless lawyer had actually come through and gotten him off on a technicality.

So here he was again, doing what he did best: living under Central Park and mugging women for spending cash and of course the fun of it. He'd trolled the Park all last night and no opportunity had presented itself, but here, at seven thirty in the morning, according to the lady's Swatch he wore on his left wrist, opportunity was knocking. And she was young and distracted, and the girl's braids were a real turn on. He wasn't in to messing with them, but a little grab and squeeze wouldn't hurt anybody. _And neither will your fat allowance little girl_, he grinned, _and your Daddy's credit card he gave you for emergencies. Emergencies like a case of beer for ME..._

He took a deep breath and tugged out his knife, prowled forward and left the line of trees. He creeped across the dewy grass toward the sobbing girl, then lunged forward and caught her about the neck with one arm, pressed the rusty blade to her throat.

"Okay, sweets, no screaming or I'll scalp that pretty hair from your narrow head, 'kay?"

Olivia gasped and looked up, hands flew to her sides, then she screamed. Johnny winced and pressed the knife harder to her throat, producing a drop of blood. She clammed up instantly.

"Look, kid, I just want your wallet, nothin else. Give it to me and I'm history."

She nodded fast, "Su-Sure, please d-don't hurt me!" and Olivia looked down for her backpack.

And screamed again, twice as loud as before.

"Dammit all!" growled Mustow and he released her, whipped around the wide stone to confront her face-to-face, "I didn't want to hurt you, bitch, but now-" he tripped over something wide and large, fell flat on his face.

He sputtered in the wet grass and flopped over, the girl was still howling. He sat up, waving his knife furiously, "I'm gonna cut you now, bitch! You really asked...for...it..." his eyes bugged from their sockets.

Olivia was leaning back on the rock, her face a white mask of terror, her hands gripping the stone so tight the knuckles were vibrating. She was staring down into her lap where a large white horse was currently resting it's head and staring up at her with an expression of deep affection.

It was resting on the ground, stretched out before the stone, and that's what Johnny had tripped over. The creature's powerful legs were folded underneath it serenely, and it's glossy alabaster coat glistened a rich and creamy white in the morning sun.

But this wasn't the most shocking part, not in the least. For a large spiraling horn rose from the beast's forehead, nearly touching the howling teen's chin.

"Holy Mary Mother of God... What the hell was I drinking last night?" breathed the mugger and he began scrambling backwards across the grass.

With a sputter of breath, the creature raised it's head and looked round at him, it's solid blue eyes narrowing at the sight of the knife in his hand. With a quiver of thick musculature it rose, far faster then Johnny thought possible. He yelped and jumped to his feet, spun about and made to run.

He managed to get about a meter, then the beast slammed into his back, impaling him in an instant, and slammed him into a tree so hard the bones of his face and chest were shattered in thirty-seven places.

The thing yanked it's horn free with a spray of blood and splinters, then turned back toward the stone. The smashed thermos and backpack were still there, but the girl was gone, though her steady screaming could be heard dwindling into the distance. The beast puffed a hot breath out it's wide nostril and stomped the ground with a heavy hoof.

"What did I do?" the unicorn asked the dead mugger in bewilderment, "Was it something I said?"

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Four and a half hours later..._

Far outside the city, pressure rocketed up to titanic proportions in the massive water reclamation plant that fed all of Manhattan. A grate flew open and in a rush the super-heated air was released and it blasted away and down, burrowing deep into the ground, forcing it's way through sluice pipes that split it off in twenty different directions. The air inside of the thirteenth pipe accelerated to blistering levels, gathering hydrogen molecules as they went and everything churned together as it exploded upwards toward the surface so that when it at last blasted free of it's earthly bondage it was a flash of white steam, spraying up in a mad fury from the 5th Avenue grating.

The three figures didn't hesitate, they stepped right through it, and for a single pristine moment in time they were framed as the iconic figures they were, even if they didn't notice. Two women, one man. Each from completely different worlds, each a vestibule of both mystical and natural strength in their own, unique way, brought together by... chance? By accident? By pure galactic coincidence? Or was is it something more...

It's been said that three is a magical number, that the fate-driven synergy of a trio working as one force has tremendous power. That even if they are unaware of the heavy mantle which had been placed upon their stalwart shoulders, they still have the unstoppable force of will to reshape Destiny itself. If so, their external monologue must be glorious, and filled with deep wisdom:

"Guys are like parking lots," Faith said to Ariel as the two women crossed the threshold into America's most famous city grounds, "all the good ones are taken, and the rest are handicapped."

"Hello, this guy can hear you." frowned Xander from where he was holding open the iron-wrought gate for them.

"No probs, Harris," replied Faith with a sly grin to the wide-eyed blonde walking beside her, "we don't think of you as a guy anyway."

He chuckled darkly, "Gee, story of my life." then let the gate swing shut and jogged after them.

He glanced for a moment at the two women who so suddenly had become paramount in what could only be considered the most bizarre life a twenty-something high school graduate had ever had.

For Xander Harris and his friends, the world was dark and strange, filled with odd magics and demonic beings, of both good and evil. And now he was in New York City, continuing the good fight. An all-new chapter had begun in what he sort of hoped would have been a bit more normal then what had come before, just to give him a moment to breath and appreciate the simple things in life. But of course that was not to be. Destiny didn't seem to want to let him off the Gothic carnival ride, so he'd just have to grin and bear it.

_You can't beat the company though_, he reflected as he hurried to catch up.

Faith was a raven-coiffed amazon, and even though she was still in the same black jeans and red t-shirt she'd worn upon her arrival in the city four days earlier (laundered yesterday of course), she was still just as striking as the young woman on her left. Xander was sure any man would have a hard time tearing their eyes from Ariel even if she was sporting muddy work-boots and torn overalls, in fact he firmly believed the pale-skinned blonde would look good in anything she chose to wear. Today it was a white silk blouse and acid-washed jeans, with a burgundy trench-coat belted over top, and Diore sunglasses concealing her ghostly-hazel eyes from the world. To him Ariel looked beyond perfect, and not worthy of his blue-collar attention.

_Muddy work-boots and torn overalls_, Xander mused, hmmm, _now there's a Penthousy image I'm going to have to fight to erase from my tunnel vision..._

His heavy boots clicking across the cobblestone path, Xander reached Ariel's other side, pulling a narrow black device from his grey coat as he came, "Heh, don't buy Faith's act. Her only expertise in men lies in the seducing of them, then chucking them away like mouldy pizza sixty minutes later."

The dark-haired Slayer laughed, "Heh, more like thirty. And in some cases fifteen." she winked at Xander who reddened.

Ariel slid hands into the pockets of her dark trench and looked back-and-forth between the two of them in confusion, "Am I, uh, missing something?"

Faith immediately looked straight ahead as if scanning the rising hills and paths of Central Park for possible ambushers, while Xander quickly turned on his stolen scanner and began to pan it about.

"Getting anything on the Slayer-finder?" asked Faith after a minute, as they crossed a stone bridge and entered the sheltering trees of a man-made forest.

He frowned over the glowing green screen set into the device's base, "Not a thing. Maybe I'm using it wrong because I'm not even picking up on you."

"I thought you were a quick-study on all things G.I. Joe."

He pursed his lips and tried another random hitting of buttons on the tiny triangular key pad, "Yeah, I can strip a 5.56mm M16 assault rifle in forty-one seconds and pilot any model of Bradley battle tank the US Army utilizes. But this Initiative demon-tech is a whole other magilla."

Faith shrugged, "I'd of thunk you'd figure it out anyway, seein as it looks like a cast-off from that Space Trek show you go all drooly over."

"Star Trek." corrected Xander and Ariel in unison. He glanced at her in surprise and she reddened, looked round fast in embarrassment, then pointed in relief, "Hey, isn't that it?"

Ahead of them, on the left side of the gravel path, a gap in the foliage seemed to vanish into the trees. It was blocked off with an orange sawhorse and a warning sign. And currently guarded by a tall NYPD Officer. He was leaning against it, brushing particles of invisible grime from his black uniform.

The trio halted and moved back a step before he might spy them.

Xander nodded, "Just like the MPEG I downloaded from the net."

While Ariel and Faith had lunched at McDonald's, he'd been next door in an internet cafe, checking local websites for any signs of either Slayer or Initiative activity. And poking around in the local police server, thanks to a virtual backdoor Willow had arranged for him two days prior. The report of a mugger getting impaled and a schoolgirl's backpack being found on the scene had been hard to miss. It sounded alot like what they were looking for, so...

Faith's eyes narrowed, "What's an em-pig? Lunch quarter-pounded went right through me, so no chattin 'bout food, yo, until after I can, like, chow-down again."

Ariel stared at her in admiration, "But you ate like three of those heavy burgers, and two orders of biggie-sized fries. How can you still be hungry?"

Faith slapped her stomach, "We Slayers need our jet fuel, let me tell ya. You think all that acrobatic-kicking-of-ass comes from our magical demon D-cells? Nope, gotta supplement it constantly."

"Yeah, but you're supplementing through our budget way too fast." Xander frowned at the thought of his rapidly thinning wallet, "It's not like the Watchers Council grows money on trees."

"I thought they spun gold from hay, or something like that."

"Actually, I don't know where they get their funding from. It's not like they ever paid Buffy a salary or anything. It took Giles to put us on even a basic pay-role, remember." he frowned,

"But our meager share is getting leaner by the nanosecond." he continued, "Your appetite is one thing, Faith, but I'm also paying for the hotels every night, and soon we're going to have nothing." he held up a hand as Faith opened her mouth to suggest what he knew she would suggest, "And no, I'm not breaking out the Watcher's Council credit card. That's for emergencies only. We're just going to have to get some jobs, or-"

"Or you could stay at one of my places." suggested Ariel, "I mean, we all could."

"One of your...places?" Xander stared at her, "As in plural? What do you mean?"

"Um...I-"

"There! He's turned away." Faith made to charge the policeman, but Ariel caught her arm.

"He's innocent in this, and sort of on our side." the new girl suggested, "Why not let me distract him."

"Yo, no Five-O is on my side." Faith snorted, "Any day of the week, no way, no how." she flexed her fists, "Look, I was just gonna knock him around, nuthin permanent-like, maybe a few stitches, perhaps a pelvic fracture."

Xander shook his head, "No, Ariel's right. Anyway, we need to keep as low a profile as we can here. Right, Ms. Douberville? Remember all your airporty fun?"

Faith scowled and folded her arms, leaned back on her heels, "Yeah, okay, whatever." she nudged the blonde forward with her elbow, "Well, get to it then, girl. Make with the metro-sucking."

She nodded and headed off.

Xander watched her go, then his one eye narrowed slightly, "Metro-sucking? What are you talking about?"

"Her powers, they come from sucking a bus. Or something like that, she said."

His eye un-narrowed his eye, "Huh? I don't get it."

"There's a shock."

Ariel reached the break in the foliage and leaned up against the sawhorse, hands meekly laced behind her back. She coughed politely and the Officer looked round in surprise.

"Hi there." she said in her husky 'can you guess the color of my panties' voice, "I'm lost."

"Huh? Look, miss, you can't be here, it's a crime scene."

She smiled coyly at him then straightened up, stepped primly across the gravel and into his personal space, "But you're a policeman. When girls are lost, you gotta help them get back home, right?" and she ran her palm up the front of his flak vest.

"Uh..."

She beamed up at him sorrowfully and batted her long eye-lashes, her retina's flashing soft pink for a moment. And the cop smiled toothily, "Well, gee, of course I can help you. I mean, it's my number one duty. Where should I take you?"

"How about behind that large tree over there?"

Back down the path, the pair watched Ariel link arms with the Officer and lead him away. Xander frowned, it bothered him for some reason, though he had no time to question exactly why right now.

Faith watched the new couple leave the gravel and vanish behind a tall oak, "That girls got major hojo goin for her, I'll give her that. Come on, Xand." she caught his arm and they loped off, zipped round the sawhorse and vanished into the woods...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Ten blocks away..._

The tall man in the long tan duster and wide-brimmed bush hat left the street. He swaggered down a narrow throughway, then turned at a marble abutment and stomped down a short set of stone steps, coming to a stop at last before a heavy wooden door, framed and hinged in bronze fixings. A plaque set into the center read: _Typhon's Crypt_. He rang the bell then toyed with the grip of the large-bore pistol strapped to his left hip until the door buzzed open.

He stepped through into the dark depths of what to the untrained eye appeared to be just another overly-cluttered junk shop. Old pine chairs and strangely-shaped lamps mixed with stacks of oversized books and about a million green wine bottles. A glass-windowed counter was set at the far end and yellow lights illuminated a variety of ancient artifacts within, all of them interesting to look at but worthless. A barrel of old and rusting swords sat to the display case's left, and on the right a stuffed Bengal tiger rose up on it's hind-legs, growling silently in all it's taxidermied glory.

The man regarded the long-departed feline with an gaze of disapproval, "When are you going to get rid of that, Swathmore? You know it's a fake. No Bengal ever attacked like that, not without fracturing it's pelvis anyway."

The curtained exit behind the counter slid back and the curio shop's owner stepped forth, carrying a stack of tomes and a small jeweled bottle. He was a man of medium height with thinning dirty-blonde hair and a thick mustache. His eyes were his most striking feature, bright and blue, and constantly shifting in their sockets. He set his items down on the counter and spread them out, "I trust you came prepared, Boone."

"Always. My vans out front with the boys and everything I should need. And the _Calyx_ of course." he chuckled wryly, "Not like I could lure him into a trailer, and anyway I'll be pushing it by taking just the van into Central Park." he frowned at the thought of all he was about to get into, "Look, you sure I can't just kill it and hack the stupid horn off right there. It sure would save alot of trouble."

Swathmore shook his head, opened a book and thumbed through it's dogged pages, "No. Carfax's Paleonomicon is very specific. It must be removed during the proper ritual."

"Okay, whatever." Boone tipped back his hat and ran a hand through his short-cropped black hair, "But I can wound it, right?"

"You'll have to, just to slow it down. But no tranquilizers. There's no way to predict the proper dosage, as one of these things haven't been seen for centuries." Swathmore's eyes glistened at the thought of being able to write the first modern treaties on unicorn physiology. _I can't wait for the vivisection, it will be glorious..._

He picked up the white cut-glass bottle, handed it over gingerly, "Break this where you want to lure it, and he will come."

Boone took the tumbler gently and held it up to the dim ceiling lamp above. He grinned lecherously as pink light danced within, "The essence of sugar-and-spice, huh?"

"And everything nice. We don't have the time to find and verify a maiden, so that's the next best thing. And it's been tinged with a drop of boggan root to mimic great sorrow and distress, so it should work perfectly."

The hunter slipped it inside his duster, "Is there anything you _don't_ have back there in that vault? You always seem to have exactly what's needed, no matter-"

"Just go get the beast." snapped Swathmore, "Before somebody else does, or it vanishes back to wherever the hell it came from."

Boone scowled, then turned away and headed out, "Whatever. Just have my twenty-five thousand ready, you got me?"

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

"Would you look at THAT." breathed Xander as he and Faith stood in the center of the muddy clearing, their backs to the flat stone protruding from the center of the small meadow.

Yellow police tape rung the trees all around them, and small orange labels were set at different points on the ground and rock, indicating evidence that had been either dug up or just taken away. But the most impressive part of the display was the large beech tree rising up before them.

It was on a slight lean, as if it had been struck very hard from within the clearing, and the side facing them was smashed in, the bark all cracked and crushed into a tall oval shape. A four-inch hole lay in the center of the depression, and there was a crusty red stain all around it. But what was truly bizarre was the chalked-off figure splayed AROUND the violent indentation.

_In all my years in Sunnydale, I've seen lots of crime-scene chalk lines_, Xander mused as he tilted his head to the left and leaned closer. _But this is the first _vertical _one I've ever come across..._

"Sonofabitch... The guy was smashed into the tree so hard his body stuck there." muttered Faith.

"The police must have had to pry him off with a crowbar." Xander ran his fingers over obvious tool marks.

"I've hit guys hard, REAL hard, yo," Faith said, "but never THAT hard. What the frig..."

"And look at this." Xander had turned back and was crouched over the ground, "They dug up a few of them for evidence or whatever, but there's still a few left."

"Few of what?"

He pointed across the churned mud and grass to a pair of large omega-shaped markings. Faith stepped to them and raised an eyebrow, "Hoof prints? Yer kiddin me. What, so, a moron playing Sir Dance-alot?"

"Lancelot."

"Or that. But a guy shootin from the saddle, with what, a really long sword?"

"Or a lance. Like Lancelot liked to use."

Faith snorted, "Whatever, man. Sounds like some geek has been droppin acid while playin Dungeons-and-Dragons."

"Don't knock it until you've tried it." he grinned, then stood and fished out the scanner, thumbed it to life once more, "Let's see if I can pick up anything."

"And if you do?" she wasn't betting the next meal he was going to be paying for on it, "What then? Call Skywalker and have him beam the Black Knight up to the _Enterprise_ cargo bay?"

"You really need to work on your science fiction references there, Faith." he pressed what he had decided must be the mode key, because it was on top and glowed the brightest.

"No. I don't. Actually, I think YOU need to quit playin Flash Gordon and-" the device's screen lit-up brightly and it began to bleep loudly. She blinked and exhaled in surprise, "Damn, Harris. Paint my face stupid and sign me up for the Space Patrol."

"Yeah, I'll get right on getting you a decoder ring." he studied the alphanumeric code flying across the small screen and hesitated from pressing any more keys, lest it stop doing whatever the hell it was doing. _I should have checked that soldier's pockets for an instruction manual or something_, he brooded, _then maybe I wouldn't be stuck here playing Greatest American Hero with the scanners functions..._

Faith moved beside him to get a closer look, but then looked up sharply, "Uh, Harris..."

He gave in and started pressing keys, "Wait, I think I've converted the incoming data into a tracking feed."

"Xander." her voice rose and she tugged on his arm.

"Not now, I think I've triangulated the demon signal-"

"So have I." and she caught his chin and swiveled his head up to look straight ahead.

"Holy Macaroni..."

"You get dorkier by the minute, you know that? But is that what I _think_ it is?"

A tall horse, it's coat a glistening shiny white, now stood on the opposite side of the clearing, it's solid blue eyes studying them intently. A spiraling horn easily three feet long arched out of it's forehead and the tip seemed to waver in the air, like it was beyond sharp. Which it most likely was.

"Um, that looks like a-"

"You aren't the one." snorted the unicorn in a distracted tone and he peered past them. His voice was throaty and rumbled, but he spoke perfect English.

"Guh... it talks..."

"Well, you learned how to talk, Harris, so I'm willing to accept pretty much anything else being able to do it too." Faith took a step forward, spread her arms wide, "Hey there, Mr. Ed. We aren't here to hurt you, but I'll bet it was you who shiskibobbed that low-life this morning, right?"

The creature looked her up and down critically, "You aren't the maiden."

"Not for a long, long time, I'll bet." snorted Xander.

Faith elbowed him in the gut, then nodded, "Nope, no maiden me. But where the heck did you come from?"

The beast sniffed the air loudly, then shook his mane vigorously, pawed the earth, "But one is close, very close. I must find her, she calls to me."

Xander frowned and stepped forward, held up a hand, "I'm sure you think you do, but you need to listen to us, you just can't go galloping around New York City stomping over who knows what-"

The creature whinnied loudly, it's lips peeled back all at once, "She is in trouble! I must go!" it lept forward in a fly of heavy hooves and barreled directly towards them!

"CRAP!" Faith lept at Xander and they bowled over, tumbling out of the way just in time as the unicorn thundered past in a spray of dirt and grass.

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_One minute earlier, twenty meters away..._

"Uhhhhh..." moaned the Police Officer, as he lay splayed back over the park bench, his vest open and shirt pulled free, exposing his gorilla-like chest. His uniform cap lay on the grass beside the tall oak and his head and arms were thrown back, his eyes clamped shut as waves of ecstacy broiled over him.

Ariel straddled his lap, her head thrown back and her teeth gritted, as her hands dug into the Officer's torso, rose-colored lightning crackling up from his skin to disappear into her bare arms. She writhed and puffed, her knees gripping him tighter and tighter, "All...most...there..."

"Guhhh...what's...happening..." gasped the cop, fighting against the assault.

"Almost...finished..." replied the breathless half-demon as she drank his sexual energy in, her fingernails clawing at his stomach, "And then...you...won't remember a...thing." and she prepared to break contact, just a little more. Just a little more. She could stop it in time, no problem. _No problem_, she breathed hard, _I'm...in perfect...con...trol..._

"Uh! Ahhhh..." the cop started bucking, his arms flailing, and blood began to bubble from his nostrils.

"N-No!" Ariel tried to pull away, her palms prying up from his flesh. But then they sucked back down like he was a magnet and she iron, and the extraction doubled in strength. Her head lulled and she fought it with everything inside her, tried to break the contact before...before..._before he DIES! I've got to! I've got to stop! Oh why did I do this, why? Wh_-CRASH!

Something slammed into the bench and the two of them were tossed flying. They hit the ground and were knocked from each other, the blazing connection severing with a loud crackle. The cop rolled into the bushes while Ariel bounced down the path and landed on her side. She looked up through foggy eyes in time to see the massive ivory shape of a horse galloping off into the forest. She looked back to their bench which the beast had clipped in his mad dash, it was broken cleanly in half and splinters were spiraling down even as she regarded it.

"...Thanks?" she exhaled in boggled relief, then Xander and Faith burst through the bushes on either side of her.

Xander looked down at her with concern, "Are you okay? Did it knock you down? Did it stomp on you?"

"Uh, no-no. I just, um, was thrown." she smoothed down her blouse and stood, brushed her golden curls back into place, sort of. She pointed to the opposite side of the clearing, "It went that a-way."

"Ya think?" growled Faith, staring at the smashed back gap of foliage and trampled bushes.

Xander grabbed them both by the wrist and took off at a run, "Let's go. We gotta catch him before he railroads over a pack of school kids!"

"And then what? We distract him with a carrot and get a saddle on him?" Faith shook her head but matched their pace. _I should have stayed in Cleveland with Robin..._

Ariel gave one last forlorn look back over her shoulder at the tall grass where the Police Officer had been tossed. She could see one of his boots sticking out and it was twitching randomly. _At least I didn't kill him, but it's getting harder and harder not to now._

She forced the thought from her mind and disappeared off into the Park with her two friends...

**End of Part I...**


	5. Chapter II: Part II

_New York City..._

It was that magical time of day for Central Park; a hundred shops and corporations let out for lunch hour and the crowds filling the already busy sidewalks and side-streets suddenly quadrupled up in size to barely-controlled manic proportions. Some people ate, some people read, some people smoked, some people screwed. And those most insane among us, the ones you never truly look in the eye for fear their madness might be transmittable, they... jogged...

Around the vast Central Park lake, at least vast for one in the center of a city, the puffing cardio-zombies went, resplendent in their bright-colored spandex and pit-stained sweats. Within minutes of it turning twelve, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir was wrung with thousands of body-conscious men and women, shapely and not-so shapely forms racing almost as fast as their straining pulmonary systems. It was the perfect time for a maddened unicorn NOT to go rampaging through in pursuit of a perceived maiden in distress.

But he did anyway. Isn't life fun?

Judith Ryce, youngest Junior VP at the brokerage firm of Danton, Danton and Ross, double-timed it down the grey concrete, the lake spreading jade on her left. She pressed fingers to her throat as she ran, and after a moments mental counting determined that her pulse was starting to thread, so she decided to slow it down and pack it in. She exhaled, _wow, I could really go for a Caramel Macchiato latte anyway, before I go back to the torture chamber_. She slowed her pace and looked about her for landmarks. Her forehead creased, _where's Starbucks from here, any_-a high-pitched scream sounded behind her and she looked back.

"What...the...fu-" she lept forward, pulse be damned, and rocketed off at Olympic speeds, as the towering white horse barreled toward her, sending people howling in all directions as it came.

_It's...got...a...horn!_

The heavy _smash-clop!_ of hooves crunching concrete grew louder by the second and Judith was foaming at the mouth now. She could feel it at the back of her neck, hear it snorting out through it's nostrils! _Imgonnadie!_ her brain screamed, _Imgonnadie! Im_-the huge horse lept high, vaulting over her, and it's shadow eclipsed her existence for a split-second, then it drove to ground a meter in front of her, shattering cobblestones and knocking a postal box into the reservoir. Judith plowed into it's back end and got a face-full of tail, then she fell over onto her back gagging.

The horse turned around and peered down at her in annoyance, "What's wrong with you, lady? Couldn't you hear me? Next time stay out of my way." and with that it puffed out a hot blast of breath in her face, then whirled about and took off again.

Judith slowly sat up as the hoof-beats and screams receded. She brushed the sweat-soaked bangs from her eyes. _Forget the latte, I need a smoke, ninety days be damned..._

She stood on rubbery legs, turned away, and then screamed as a black van roared toward her. She threw up her hands and covered her face as it swerved around her at the last second, it's driver shouting obscenities as he throttled past.

"Crazy bitch!"

She was spun about 360 degrees by the shockwave of air rushing after the van, then fell onto her knees, again pointing back the way she'd come. _Uh, no, what I need now is Percadin. Yeah, Percadin, that's the ticket_-HONK! "Outa the way, yo!" HONK!

A boxy meter maid mobile, in all it's silver-and-blue golfcart glory, side-swiped Judith and tossed her like a rag-doll into the lake. Xander was bent over the wheel with Ariel and Faith jammed in behind him. The Slayer looked back at the splashing woman, "No worries, guys, she'll live, so step on it." she returned her vigil forward and snorted in annoyance, "Jeez, I hate joggers."

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Elsewhere in Central Park..._

"_We've spotted him boss, and he's cutting a swath across the Park right to your position_." crackled Boone's headset, "_Should we break off?_"

"No. Maintain your pursuit."

"_Okay, but this place is going Titanic. Everybody's running and screaming_-"

"Like I care." growled Boone, "But what about the police? Any sign of them yet? They should be here soon."

"_No, not so far. But for some reason a Meter Maid is tailing us._"

_A Meter Maid...did I hear that right?_ Boone lowered his binoculars for a second, brow furrowing under his hat, then he shrugged, "Ignore her, she must have cracked under the stress and is heading in the wrong direction. Just get here. You're my getaway, remember."

"_Oh yeah, right. I forgot. Okay, Leatherby out._"

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

"The horse is heading for the Conservatory Garden!" a Central Park Security Guard shouted into his radio, as the horned equine blazed past him, snorting it's excitement. The unicorn lept a low stone fence, arched over a path with people cowering below him, then landed in a half-turn to the right, hooves digging a foot into the soft grass and soil. He shook his head, silver mane flying around his elongated head, and peered first right, then left.

_Where is she? I thought I sensed her...I can STILL sense her, yes, there she is!_

He whipped to the right and took off again, and galloped even faster then before, past the coppery figures of the Burnett Fountain. He knifed onto a new path and was charging along the iron fencing now, and for the first time caught sight of the towering structures rising up from across the wide street filled with strange wheeled boxes. His eyes spun, _I'm inside a monstrous castle! What magicks are these? How did I come to be here?_

The unicorn didn't slow though, and closed on the distressed young woman's location.

He exploded past a second fountain, then whipped to the left and off the path, raced up a steep hill. He reached the summit and tipped down the other side, rocky spurs rising up all around him. Thin copses of trees surrounded him and then he saw her, crouched in the center of a pounded-out circle of ground, wrung on two sides by the remains of a brick wall.

She was young and angel-haired, clad in a white gown with her knees pulled up to her chest, and she quacked back-and-forth, sobbing softly. The unicorn rumbled to a halt and clopped toward her, his hooves turning silent. He halted beside the girl and puffed out a friendly breath through his wide grey nostrils.

"Have no fear, maiden. Mercury has come to protect you." and he lowered his head to nuzzle her hair.

But she faded like a ghost and all that remained was the broken remains of a jeweled bottle.

Mercury's eyes widened and he shook his mane in confusion, "What sorcery is this?"

From his vantage point thirty feet above and to the left, Clancy Boone leveled the breach of his Holland and Holland Royal on a chest-high boulder and sighted down the long length of the double-barreled rifle.

"Magnificent." he marveled as his finger slid to the triggers, "It's almost too beautiful to kill. Almost..."

And he fired-the black van roared up another hill and screeched to a stop twenty meters from the beast, the unicorn reared and the shot rocketed under it's waving fore-hooves and blasted a tree in half!

The unicorn slammed back down on the ground and whirled about, then spun back. _What was that explosion of noise?_ he wondered, as the doors of the van flew open and three men piled out, ran towards him.

"Idiots!" shouted a voice from the top of the Mount, and Mercury turned about to see a tall man in a wide-brimmed hat half-running, half-sliding down the steep hill, a strange metal stick in his grip.

"What is this?" bayed the unicorn, "Who are you, and where did the maiden go?"

"Jeez, it speaks!" Boone landed at the lee of the hill, in a shower of branches and leaves.

Mercury closed on him, horn slicing the air dangerously. Boone backed up startled, half-stumbled then caught himself on a recycle bin. The unicorn loomed over him, "I _demand_ to know where the maiden went! Or was she just a glamour you cast to lure me here? If so, you make for a poor hunter with a blunted spear like that!"

Boone blinked then snarled, annoyed by his sudden bout of panic, "This aint no spear, beast." and he raised the elephant gun to his shoulder and reached for the second trigger, "And I'll be known as the greatest hunter even born once I mount your hornless-head in my study." and he aimed for the creatures left fore-leg and pulled.

"NO!" hollered an angry female voice as the barrel was snagged and wrenched upwards. The rifle went off with a mighty roar and blew the top off of a lamp post.

The unicorn lurched backwards in shock, as Boone twitched in fury and turned on the dark-haired woman who had just materialized beside him.

She sneered, "Some great-white hunter YOU make. You didn't even hear me sneaking up on you."

"Who the hell-" she yanked the rifle from his grip and slugged him across the jaw. He stumbled back, catching his bleeding mouth in one hand, his eyes shocked and thick with wrath.

"The names Faith and this towns mine now, so get with the program, Alex Quarter-lame." and she raised the heavy rifle and snapped it in half. Boone roared and lept for her throat, she easily side-stepped him, spun, and caught him in the back with a side-kick. He was knocked spinning into the recycle bin, slammed over it and fell to ground in a heap.

The three men charged up, keeping a cautious several meters from the confused unicorn, and pulled out pistols, trained them on her. "Don't you even twitch, girl." growled the short stocky one in the middle, as he levered his Colt Python revolver at her. Faith rolled her eyes and folded arms across her chest, "Xander? Kill these mooks."

A metallic click sounded from behind the three men and they looked over their shoulders to see a tousled-haired man with an eyepatch, armed with a lethal-looking black pistol, "Hey there, guys. We must be south of the border, because this looks like a Mexican Stand-off."

Ariel stepped around him and approached the unicorn with great care, "Hi there, don't be frightened."

"I'm not frightened." he replied and the trio did a double-take, as did Boone's men.

Ariel smiled, "That's good to know." and she reached out with her hand for his muzzle.

"No!" warned Xander, "I've read about unicorns! You can't touch them unless you're a-" she made contact and the unicorn whinnied softly in pleasure as she stroked his nose.

"My name is Ariel. What's yours?" she seemed enraptured.

"Mercury. I am pleased to meet you, Ariel. Would you like to ride me?"

Xander blinked and his jaw sagged, "Um, unless you're a...a...and I guess you are..."

"She's a what?" demanded Faith, "What are you goin on about?"

"The beast," rasped Boone as he straightened up from behind the bin, yanking something heavy and metallic from under his coat as he came, "only the pure may touch it." and he threw the wide object, it spun through the air like a giant throwing star and smacked between the unicorn's front legs, "Unless he's dead! _Patefacio-Insum_!"

The grey artifact sprung open like the trap it was and amber energy burst up from it to envelope both the unicorn and Ariel! The beast howled and she screamed, but they could not move. Then the spinning energies shot back into the object, taking them with it, and it snapped shut once more.

Faith and Xander stared down at the slowly smoking eldritch device, their faces twin masks of horror.

"Wha-What did you just do? Where's Ariel!" demanded Xander.

The Slayer tore her eyes away artifact and stalked forward, grabbed Boone by the collar, "ANSWER HIM! NOW!" and she yanked him off his feet.

The hunter nearly gagged but maintained his lecherous grin, "She's all mine now, as is the beast. And all I have to do is utter a different command and they die instantly."

She yanked him close and caught his jaw with her fingernails, "Not if I tear out your tongue first. Let her out of the mouse-trap, pal, RIGHT NOW!"

"No. I won't. In fact, me and my boys will be taking the _Calyx_ and going, while you do nothing. And once I'm done with the unicorn I'll let your friend go."

"You are DELUDED, if you think-"

"Faith..." said Xander.

"What!" she looked round at him, brown eyes flashing.

"Do as he says." and he lowered his gun.

"Are you a few fries short of a Happy Meal, Harris? No freakin way!"

"Faith!"

She glared, but let him go. Boone dropped back to earth and caught himself on the side of the recycle bin, then straightened up and smoothed down his duster, "I knew you'd see things my way." Faith reared back and slugged him in the stomach, he grunted and nearly bent double, then she tore off his hat and and grabbed him by the oily hair and yanked him back up to her eye-level, "Now you see things MY way, dork. You've got thirty minutes, and if my girl aint back with me, with all her fingers and toes in place, then I'm gonna hunt YOU down and mount your bitch-face on MY wall. You gettin the message?"

He nodded hard and she let him go. He coughed and nodded to his men, who holstered their revolvers and headed back to the van, Leatherby grabbing up the rune-inscribed _Calyx_ as he went. He and Xander shared a glare. The smaller man smiled darkly, then climbed into the back and pulled the door shut.

Boone reached for his hat, but Faith snapped it back from his grasp and dropped it onto her own head, then put hands on her hips and stared him down. He opened his mouth, then decided against it, and jogged off and got into the driver seat. He slammed the door and hit the reverse. They backed up, swung about, then roared off.

"You better know what the hell you're doin, Harris."

Xander opened his jacket and pulled out the Initiative scanner, which was blinking green and bleeping excitedly.

"Whatever that _Calyx_ thing is, it must be giving off demonic energy like all get out. Because the moment it slammed shut this thing started going crazy."

His single eye narrowed with intense determination and he set off at a fast trot, "Wherever they're going, so are we..."

**End of Part II...**


	6. Chapter II: Part III

_Uptown NYC..._

The phone rang, echoing down the length of the curio shop and rattling the wafer-thin glass frames of the Byzantium frescos hung along the walls. It sounded twice more, then the machine came on, "_You have reached _Typhon's Crypt,_ open three days a week, visits by appointment only. If you would like to leave a message, please do so._" there was a trill of beeps, then

"Swathmore_! Percival, you idiot, pick up! Blast it, are you there?_"

There was a clatter of noise in the back of the store and a thunder of footsteps, then the heavy curtain was pulled back and the owner grabbed the receiver, "Yes! Boone, where are you?"

He could hear the heavy roar of the engine as they raced through the city streets, "_On our way there, we ran into some trouble_-"

"Do you have it? Did you capture it? Do you-"

"_Yes, yes, we've got your creature, but our fee just doubled. You won't believe the trouble we went through. Dammit, I think some of my ribs are cracked. And my jaw may be fractured._"

Swathmore couldn't care less, his eyes glistened in anticipation of what his Asian clients would pay for just a microgram of powdered unicorn horn. And it would be fresh, and he'd have an ENTIRE horn, just for himself...

_I'm bloody rich, I am. Many times over._

"So, the creature was violent, was it? Humph, perhaps the maiden glamour was off somewhat."

"_No, not the unicorn, it was the girl!_"

Swathmore's eyes narrowed, "Girl? What girl?"

"_She came out of nowhere and she was unlike anything I've ever seen. Unbelievably fast and immensely strong. Too strong for anything natural, she must have been supernaturally-charged._"

"A demon?"

"_No, not a demon, I can always recognize a demon, I've killed enough of them. No, she looked normal enough. And she had this guy with her calling the shots, seemed to know lots about mystical things._"

The lines in Swathmore's forehead deepened and he cupped the phone closer to his mouth, "This man... was he British by any chance? Did refer to her as a...as a Slayer?"

"_No... What's a Slayer?_"

"This girl-hero of yours, it sounds like. Bollocks. Anyway, never you mind. Look, a slight change of plans. Meet me at my storage facility. No room in my shop for a creature that large anyway, and it never hurts to be too careful."

"_Okay. Be there in twenty minutes. And bring my money, double remember, no arguments._"

Swathmore hung up and stood there for a long moment, drumming his fingers on the counter-top thoughtfully. Then he turned around and headed into the back again to get ready.

"...a Slayer..." he muttered under his breath, gaze turned inward, "...fancy that..."

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Boone folded his phone back up and wiped at his oozing mouth with the back of his hand. He frowned down at the foamy blood. He scowled and stuffed the cell back into his duster then looked over at Leatherby who now had the wheel, "He went for it."

"Fifty thousand, excellent boss. It's not like it wasn't earned."

Boone scowled, "Yeah, and I think we're still on the payroll. I'm thinking this day isn't over yet." he thumped the metal divider behind his seat and a slot slid back.

"Give me the Rugers." he ordered, and a moment later a pair of extremely large revolvers were handed through the gap, holstered in studded black leather. Boone set them on his lap and pulled out the right one, held it up and broke the breach. He spun the drum and kicked open the glove compartment, dug out a handful of speed-loaders. He slapped one in, spun it, then snapped the big revolver shut.

"Let the girl come," he sneered, "I'm ready for her this time. I don't give a crap WHAT a Slayer is. A dead bitch is a dead bitch."

"You actually think they'll come after us?" asked Leatherby, looking worried.

Boone nodded and continued loading, "Oh yeah, I know the type. All valiant hero-wannabe's. I'd bet the Hope Diamond they're trailing us right this moment, using the most sophisticated methods available."

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

"But the last guy said my Transfer would be good for hours." Xander waved the grey slip in annoyance.

The bus driver shook his head again, "Only until the next connecting stop. Deposit a buck seventy-five, bub, or get off."

"Just pay the mook, Harris. We don't have time for this crap." Faith growled behind him on the steps. He reluctantly dug in his pocket and counted out some quarters, dropped them in the slot, then filed onboard.

A moment later the doors clanked shut and the bus pulled away from the curb. In the scooped plastic seat, Xander folder arms across his chest and frowned sullenly, "That's it. Tomorrow we're all getting bus passes."

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

With the clanking of rusty chain, the twelve-foot door swung up into the ceiling, sending the bright March sunlight blazing into the depths of the dusty warehouse.

Eclipsed for a moment into the ominous silhouette of a hulking troll, the black van then shot forward and banged up the ramp onto the cement loading dock, then into the _Typhon's Crypt_ storage facility. It flew down the narrow channel between towering crates and rusting drums, while nets laden with broken furniture and rusting metal artifacts swayed overhead.

The door shut once more behind them as they reached the apex of the hulking chamber, held up by a wide square of high support columns. The van stopped with a squeal of badly-lubricated brakes in the empty center of the warehouse, lit dimly from a foggy skylight high overhead. The doors flew back and the four men climbed out, Boone leading the way while Leatherby carried the runic _Calyx_ in his arms. His boots clanged across the sluice grating set into the floor as he went.

"Good. You're exactly on time."

Swathmore stepped out from behind a long rack of Celtic pottery, a stack of books under one arm, a long-toothed dagger in the other. He wore a long red robe, lined in gold silk and decorated with Druidic glyphs. He pointed to left, where a wide, freshly-applied chalk ring spread out for nearly seven meters on the cement floor, "Put the trap in the middle of the power circle."

Leatherby looked to his boss, who looked to the shop owner. The mustached man shook his head irritably then pulled a thick manilla envelope from under his robe, tossed it over. Boone squeezed it and smiled, nodded to his man, who did as Swathmore asked.

Swathmore laid his books atop a nearby crate then moved inside, drawing an old jar from his robe as he went. He popped the cap then dipped the dagger's tip in it, knelt and began to spread more bone-white chalk with the blade, muttering incantations under his breath as he did so.

Within a minute he had bisected the circle with two lines which met at the _Calyx_, leaving the ring divided into four separate wedges. In three of these he'd drawn one of three different runes, and with that done he now stepped into the empty fourth wedge. He looked to Boone, "When I give the signal, utter the command to open the _Calyx_."

The hunter looked dubious, "And let that thing free? It's going to be awfully pissed, I'll bet."

"Don't worry, he won't be going anywhere. Just do it." and Swathmore raised his arms, shut his eyes, "I call upon Erebus, lend me your strength, _Claustrum_, _Consisto-Ater_! Erebus, lend me your will, _Claustrum_, _Consisto-Atra_! Erebus, bring your darkness to me so I may mold it to my very will, _Claustrum_, _Consisto-Atrum_!" and with that last declaration he gestured to Boone.

"_Laqueum-Eximo_!"

Black lightning was already crackling along the length of the ring as the _Calyx'_s top sprang back, releasing it's golden aurora. With a flash of light, Mercury and Ariel rematerialized, then the trap snapped closed once more. The unicorn looked to the girl and then they both looked to Boone. Mercury snorted in rage and lept for him. But his horn met with the edge of the circle and was knocked back with a crackle of dark energy.

Boone stepped up and rapped on the semi-visible barrier with his knuckles, "Sorry there, Trigger, but you aren't going anywhere."

"You can't keep us in here forever!" shouted Ariel, her hazel eyes flashing.

"And we won't have to." said a voice behind her, tinged with a European accent. She managed a half turn before Swathmore brought the hilt of his dagger down on the back of her head. She moaned and collapsed.

Mercury spun about, nostrils puffing in fury, "How _dare_ you harm a maiden under my protection! Your death is assured!" and he made to rear back on his hooves, but Swathmore raised his hand, on-which a closed eye was painted in green demon blood, "_Obdormio-Equus_."

The unicorn stumbled, his eyes blinking open and shut. He shook his long mane in confusion, then settled down to the concrete, folding his legs underneath him. He bowed his head and fell into an instant slumber. Swathmore moved forward and caught hold of his horn, raised his knife and began to chant once more.

Leatherby watched enraptured, "He knocked that thing out right, but still, I'm happy we're safe and sound out here, instead of inside the power circle with him."

"You sure about that?" asked a voice behind them, and they turned to see Xander.

He stepped from the shadows of the piled crates and into the thin light cast from the skylight, "I don't think you're safe at all." he declared with a grin, and leveled his gun upon them.

Boone scowled, "You know, now that I get a better look at it, that's a tranquilizer gun you're threatening us with." he patted the heavy wooden grips of the revolvers belted to his hips, "If you're going to play with the big boys, kid, you need to arm yourself with something better then an air gun." he glanced for a moment ceiling-ward.

"Who says it's loaded with tranquilizer?" Xander gestured with the long barrel, "You can fill the ampules with nearly anything, like say, hydrochloric acid." and he fired, nailing Leatherby in the throat with a dart.

The man gagged and fell to one knee, his eyes spinning in their sockets. He wailed in terror and scrambled at his neck "It burns! It burns!" he coughed, then fell on his face.

Xander shrugged, "Okay, I lied. They're filled with tranquilizer."

There was a rattle of weapons being drawn and Boone's three remaining cronies now had pistols pointed at his chest. The hunter grinned, "And these are filled with bullets." he stepped back and his men moved together, "Kill the fool. He annoys me."

There was a _clang!_ and the grating in the floor flew free. Faith hurtled from it and was instantly amongst the men, kicking and punching like a maniac. One was slammed to the floor to lie beside Leatherby, another was thrown high and deflected off a low-hanging net of old melee weapons. She spun in fast half-circles, her new hat bouncing on her shoulder-blades, barely hanging on by the leather chin cord knotted about her neck. The third man's mouth met her heel with a dental-cracking _crunch!_ and he teetered for a moment, then toppled like a bowling pin.

"I'll bet you were expecting me to drop in through the skylight, like Batman or somebody heroic like that." she straightened up from a combat crouch and turned to face Boone who was backing up fast, "That's not my thing, I don't descend from the heavens, I rise from the depths. That's one for you to grow on, Blackheart, while yer kick'n it in the ICU."

His hands blurred to his sides, came up with twin engines of destruction, "It's _you_, girl, who's not making it out of here."

Faith's eyebrows went up, "Now those are some BIG GUNS. There must be nuthin in your jockies, if you need to overcompensate _that_ badly." and she dodged to the left and took off. Boone swung his aim and opened up.

Xander was on the other side of the circle, banging on the force field with his fists, when the loudest gunshots he'd ever heard roared across the room. He instinctively ducked and looked round blinking. _Jeez!_ his mind gasped, _that's louder then a Desert Eagle!_

Faith soared along the concrete at maximum Slayer speed, a row of towering wooden crates blurring on her left side, as Boone spun, his fingers churning on the triggers, the twin barrels of the Ruger Super Blackhawks flashing bright orange. The .44 Magnum cartridge is the most powerful handgun ammo in the world, and the huge revolvers are mostly utilized in an anti-vehicle role by law enforcement agencies gutsy enough to carry them. With each thunderous impact a crate exploded or a barrel burst. Boone knew it just as well as Faith; all it would take is one hit and she'd be dog food, Slayer powers or no Slayer powers. And he was a crack shot, it was only a matter of time.

_So I make some MORE time!_ and Faith yanked the curved fighting dagger from her belt and threw it blindly, everything depending on the endless nights she'd practiced throwing, back when she'd worked for the Mayor of Sunnydale. There was no hesitation in her mind as she did this, there was too much at stake, she'd just have to answer for it later. For she wasn't aiming for Boone, no, to accomplish such a complicated shot she delved into the darkest, cruelest element of her soul and seized upon the only target her rage could possibly hit in such an impossible situation as this:

_Buffy..._

The silver blade buzzsawed across the warehouse, light strobbing off it's pinwheeling blade, and in the Slayer's minds-eye the hunter was gone. In his place stood a smirking girl in leather pants and the purest of white blouses, her hair a golden halo of niceness.

Boone gaped and spun to dodge, but the knife slammed into his left side, burying itself to the hilt.

He gurgled, blood spraying from his lips, but even as he stumbled to the side, his arms flying upwards in shock, he kept on firing, and the powerful slugs peppered the ceiling in a series of explosive cracks! Faith, thrown all a-kilter by the brain-mushing multitasking, plowed face-first right into a concrete support column and went down like a ton of bricks.

The warehouse spun about Boone, then he was falling, the smoking Blackhawks dropping from his hands. The world slowed for him as he pitched over off of his feet and plummeted to the concrete, landing with a meaty thump as his pistols spun down to clang about his prone body. He coughed once, then was still, as his life-blood pooled about him, spreading across the grey floor.

Back inside the power circle, Swathmore stared through the phasing barrier at the fallen hunter, then swallowed hard and turned back to his ritual. He could feel the power building within him and it was too late to stop now, he was too close, the horn was almost his. His chanting rose to a shout and his raised knife swished about his head, leaving behind glowing energy runes in the dusty air.

Ariel sat up with a groan, rubbing the back of her head, then went wide-eyed at the sight of the red-robed man, grasping Mercury's horn.

"Leave him alone! You leave him ALONE!" she lept to her feet and charged him, hands forming into fists. But when she made contact she was tossed backwards in a crackle of black energy and bounced across the floor on her behind.

She looked up gasping, pushed the curly hair from her eyes, "Wha...what was that?"

Swathmore glanced back at her, his eyes orbs of darkness, and grinned, "The circle protects me as well, while keeping your friends out, and the unicorn in. Nothing can touch me while it exists!"

Ariel glared, then slapped her palms flat to the concrete, "Then I'll have to get rid of the circle, won't I!"

Rose lightning sizzled down her arms and ripped into the floor, flowed away from her in a rippling wave of pink energy. It burned as it went, vaporizing the runes and lines as it did so, leaving behind only grey ash.

The circle fizzled then vanished. Swathmore gave a wordless cry of rage then spun about and dived for her, slashed her across the face. Ariel screamed and tumbled backwards, he lept atop her and raised his blade, "Interfering bitch!" and slammed it down into her chest, then wrenched it free in a spray of blood.

"BASTARD!" roared Xander Harris at him in terrible fury.

Swathmore was tackled hard and toppled away from the blonde girl in a thrashing of limbs. He whipped the knife back-and-forth in desperation, and it slashed across Xander's right shoulder. Then the two men were rolling across the warehouse floor and crashed against a stack of crates. The boxes teetered then fell over, smashing down all around the wrestling pair, exploding into spinning shards of wood and tossing their contents in all directions.

Glass urns shattered on the floor, scrolls unrolled in flapping sprays of paper, ancient weapons clattered and flew, bouncing and sliding across the concrete. Xander got an arm free and slugged Swathmore across the face, the shopkeeper cried out in pain, then got a knee between them and kicked hard, sending Xander catapulting backwards. He bounced across the floor, landed on his side, then rolled over and sat up with a grunt, "Next time I fly first-class."

"You're no Watcher!" snarled Swathmore as tossed the ceremonial dagger away and grabbed up a spear which had landed beside him.

"Never said I was." and Xander looked round, spotted a blackened sword lying by his feet. He caught it up and the two men stood. They raised their melee weapons and closed the gap.

"But you play at being one, boy, by cavorting with that poor-excuse for a Slayer." and Percival whipped the pole weapon up and around, swishing it through the air toward his enemy's chest.

Xander blocked evenly with the sword's long blade and the spear-head scraped down the length of the ancient saber. Then they were nose-to-nose, eyes blazing!

"I'm gonna gut you, for what you did to Ariel." snarled Xander.

"I did you a favor, boy." Swathmore jeered, "I know how to spot a demon and she's one of the worst kind, trust me. You should be thanking me."

"I'll thank your corpse!" and Xander knocked the spear up and swung a punch for the older man's stomach, Swathmore side-stepped it and then darted away with smooth foot-work. He spun the spear back and knocked it evenly on the floor, slapped it back into his grip. Xander pivoted with the sword, whipped it through a fast and complex pattern, which ended with tapping the flat against his forehead in mock salute.

Swathmore grinned, "You are Watcher trained, at the very least. Tell me, was it Armitage? Or Howsham?"

"Would you just shut-up already?" Xander shook his head in exasperation, "This isn't the Princess Bride, you know. Can't we just hack and stab at each other until one falls over from blood-loss? Preferably YOU."

"That would be _you_ bleeding to death, my boy." replied Swathmore, nodding at Xander's wounded shoulder. Blood flowed freely down his arm now from the ugly slash and pooled on the back of his hand. It rippled onto the hilt of the old sword, and dripped onto the floor slowly.

"Just a flesh wound, I've had them lots of times." shrugged the one-eyed American Watcher-in-training, "I'd be more worried, buddy, about my Slayer creeping up behind you."

The shop owner looked to the support column where the dark-haired woman lay moaning, "That strategy never works-" with his attention deflected, Xander lept forward, swinging the blade down and around fast, it literally _sang_ as it cut through the air.

Swathmore's eyes went wide and he tried to bring up his spear, but the sword cleaved through it just below the point and he was left holding a useless pole. Xander tossed his weapon, threw back his arm, then nailed the robed psychotic in the kisser with a punch that would have shamed Sugar Ray Leonard. As the man fell without a sound, Xander was already crossing the floor and crouching over Faith. He patted her cheek and her lids fluttered, she looked up at him dumbly.

"Ugh, my head feels like somebody tore off the top and poured in battery acid." she shook it and moaned low, "Uhhh...hey, did my throw nail her?"

"Did your throw nail who?"

"Um...never mind..." she sat up and surveyed the vast carnage that was the warehouse battlefield, "Jeez, did I do all that?"

"Most of it, yeah. Wait until you get the clean-up bill."

"Let's make tracks then, before they start takin names. Where's the new kid?"

Xander didn't reply, just stared across the floor to the circle of ash, where, just beyond the finally waking unicorn, Ariel's body lay prone. She was very still as blood slowly seeped from the ugly wound between her breasts.

"She's not...she's not here anymore..." Xander finally replied, his voice very low.

The unicorn whinnied and raised his blinking head, "What happened? The magician, where-the maiden!" he stared down at Ariel, then nudged her shoulder gently with his muzzle. Xander opened his mouth to growl an objection, then nearly fell over when the young woman's eyes blinked and her lips worked slightly.

"Ohmigod, she's okay! She's-"

Faith caught his shoulder, her gaze locked on the girl's nearly translucent expression, "No. She's not. It won't be long, so-"

"I failed to protect you, Lady." said Mercury in a low whisper, and nuzzled Ariel's ear as her eyes slowly shut once more, "And as such I must give my life now." he bowed his head low and his horn touched her forehead. There was a sound like a distant breaking of glass and his body seemed to strobe with rippling white light. It cascaded along his length and flowed down his horn and into Ariel. He inhaled deeply through his wide nostrils, then blew the breath across her body.

Then he withdrew and laid his head to the side on the floor. And vanished into nothingness, leaving behind only his horn. It fell to ground with a bone-like clatter, then was still.

For the longest moment of their lives, Faith and Xander didn't think, didn't move, didn't breath...

...

...then...

With a scream so loud it shattered the skylight, Ariel sat up.

Bright sunlight flooded the warehouse, and her two friends were on their feet and running toward her, as triangles of glass flashed downwards to crash and tinkle on the cement floor. Ariel looked about in a daze, as Faith helped her to her feet and Xander grasped her shoulders tightly and grinned at her madly.

"Where...wha..." she rubbed at her eyes with back of her right hand, while her left tugged absently at the wide, blood-stained hole in her blouse. Beneath it, her skin was whole and perfect, as if nothing had happened at all, just like her face. She licked her lips and her gaze focused at last, she looked about the room, "Mercury. Where is he? He isn't running loose in the city, is he? He might get hurt."

Faith bent, then came up with the horn and held it out to her, "I'm sorry, ya gotta know that. If I'd tried harder maybe, then, I dunno, maybe..." Ariel took it from her and the Slayer turned away.

Ariel's eyes were wet. Xander took off his coat, draped it over her shoulders.

"Let's go. I've had more then enough of this place."

"That dude in the Stonecutter's robe is gone." said Faith as she picked up the heavy star-shaped circle of the Calyx, "So's that hunter guy and his boys. And he left this behind too." she held up a fat manila envelope.

"See me care." Xander replied, so she shrugged and stuffed it in her jacket.

Then they left without a backwards glance...****

_In a darkened chamber, at an undisclosed location somewhere beneath the city..._

The light of the plasma wall screen flickered over the mute faces of the black-uniformed Initiative men.

"_Let's go. I've had more then enough of this place._" said the one-eyed man on the flat television display. The view was from overhead, and at slight angle.

"_That dude in the Stonecutter's robe is gone._" the dark-haired girl advised him, as she bent over and lifted up the left-behind artifact.

"_So's that hunter guy and his_-" the screen flicked off with a plink of light, then the lights rose to their twilight levels once more.

All heads turned toward the head of the long mirrored table, where a man sat, entirely concealed under a hooded black robe. His hands disappeared into the wide sleeves and he leaned back in his chair. It's rich leather creaking under his shifting weight.

"Well, that was fascinating to watch. Especially the climax. It was not entirely without it's thrall. Too bad about the unicorn though. And after we went to so much trouble to summon it."

"Sir, if I may ask..."

"You may."

"How did you predict Slayer-002 and her associates would become involved, so quickly?"

There was a mild chuckle, "Call it an educated guess. It's a small world after all, as the saying goes. And gentlemen, you will always find that a Slayer is usually a big player, when anything darkly mystical is taking place. ESPECIALLY now that there are so many of them."

"But, you consider the test a success?"

"Oh, a perfect one, in my opinion. An excellent first step. Now, we must begin preparing for the second phase."

And they nodded their silent agreement...

**End of Chapter II...**


	7. Chapter III: Part I

**SLAYERS: THREE OF A KIND**

**Chapter III - Inside Track**

Faith lay upon the unforgiving floor, three ribs cracked, four broken. Her right arm was fractured in three places and twisted at an odd angle beneath her prone body. Blood dripped down from her gaping lips to join the rapidly spreading pool flowing from the ragged gash in her abdomen. Behind clenched lids, her eyes worked madly as she fought to stay conscious.

_...n-no...he's...coming...somebody h-help...me..._

With a crunch of flooring, a tall form landed five meters from her in a crouch, then straightened up with a sound like sliding stone plates. He stalked slowly toward her, each foot-step a heavy smash, then reached down and caught her by the hair, dragged her up to dangle like a puppet before him.

"That was round one, Slayer. Time for round two."

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_At the exact same moment..._

The second-story window swung open and back, crashing against the wall with a crackling of glass, then Ariel clawed her way through it, moving as fast as she could, heart pounding in her chest like a jackhammer.

_No choice_, she decided desperately, _gotta chance it!_

She got half-way out, but a throaty snarl sounded behind her and she felt jaws of steel clamp down on her left leg. She was yanked backwards in a rush, her head deflecting off the window pane as she went.

With a scream she vanished back inside.

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

The sunroof exploded inwards, sending squares of tinted glass flying in all directions. The two men threw up arms to protect their faces, and as they lowered them a dark mass thumped down on the limo floor between them. There was a sound like bubbling flesh and the woman looked about her, then locked her feral gaze upon Xander.

"Miss me, lover?" she hissed, then sprang for him.

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Four hours earlier, 8:07 PM to be exact...  
_  
The Guggenheim Museum SoHo had been closed for more then an hour now, but it was pretty hard to tell. Maybe it was because the lights were still on. Or perhaps it was the small crowd amongst the lines of legendary paintings. Or, maybe it was the vampires.

Ten people lay on the floor of the 5th Level Annex, half of them dead and oozing blood from perforated necks, the other half quaking with fear. All around them was chaos, as a band of dark-clad vamps duked it out with three off-the-street patrons. One blonde, one brunette, and one with an eye patch. The museum's Head Curator squealed in fear and covered his head as the battle around him intensified

She charged across the open floor, shards of carved pine gripped in each hand, and lept high. For a moment the wild carnage seemed to freeze, as the raven-haired Slayer sommersaulted over the heads of the angry demon clan. Then she landed in the thick of the action and everything was moving once more, she whirled to the left, hard-thrust, whirled to the right, stabbed, then jumped over a lunge for her throat, kick-ran up the front of a third vamp and rotated on her center of gravity for a complete 360 degrees, landed in a crouch and slammed both stakes into the chests of two more attackers. There was a rush of air and grit and they were gone, then she was up once more and panning the battlefield for the others.

And instantly saw danger.

"Harris! Jeez, man, behind ya!"

At that warning from Faith, Alexander 'Xander' Harris, sort-of-Watcher-in-training, spun fast on the heels of his scuffed paratrooper boots and ducked. Black finger-nailed hands sliced and diced the air where the back of his head had been only half a moment before, then he slammed a punch into the gut of the girl vamp who'd been sneaking up on him. She grunted and stumbled back a step, then growled in fury and tried again, swung a high kick for his face, her night-velvet-and-lace gown spinning about her skeletal form.

"Now that was rude, trying to take advantage of my blind-spot like that." growled Xander as he raised up and parried the six-inch heel away. He caught her by the shoulders and kneed her in the stomach, "Don't you children of the night EVER fight fair?"

Doubled-over and hissing, the girl tried to turn away and run, but he brought his knee up again into her chin, knocking her head back with a crack! She spun backwards into the wall, knocking the painting 'Woman with Yellow Hair' off it's perch. It fell to the floor with a clatter and the huddling Curator shrieked, "Please be careful! That's priceless!"

"Gee, and here we were just trying to prevent you and your people from getting eaten." Xander rolled his eye and stalked forward, "I guess I'm just not the artsy-fartsy type."

The vampiress made to leap for him again but he was faster. His one eye narrowing and his teeth gritting wrathfully, all in the best imitation of Nick Fury he could produce, Xander laced his fingers, swung high, then slammed a two-fisted blow down on the girl's skull. She screamed in pain and was knocked back down onto her knees, head reeling. His right hand dived under his leather coat, came back with a stake, flipped it down and rammed it forward into her chest.

Her hands caught his as if to yank the stab back, "Cronin-" she managed to gasp out, then she exploded into a cloud of brown dust.

Xander turned away and stalked across the room, as Faith broke the neck of the last vamp. He looked about and frowned, "Okay, where'd Ariel go?"

The jean-jacketed and bush-hatted Slayer pointed down the length of the studio to a closing red door. A red-lit exit sign was mounted above it, "Through there, after the leader of these idiots, the tall one with the white hair and matching goatee. He took off with one of the paintings." she raised a dubious eye-brow, "Is that what they were here for? To steal some paint-by-number crap?"

The Curator got to his feet, his love of art at last overcoming his abject terror, at least somewhat, "That criminal took 'Fernande with a Black Mantilla'! You have to get it back! It's priceless!"

Xander and Faith looked at each other in confusion.

The little man snorted in disgust, "Pedestrians, humph. It's a transitional creation by Pablo Picasso himself." he waved his arms madly, "This whole Annex is all his work! Do you even _know_ what this museum is for?"

Faith's eyes lit-up, "Oh yeah, the guy who paints people with two noses, right? His stuff is trippy, yo, like he painted it while doped up on bad cough medicine."

Xander's brow furrowed, "But still, Picasso or no Picasso, why would a bunch of vampires want to steal this 'Francine with a Black Gorilla'?"

"Fernande with a Black Mantilla!" snapped the curator, "It was a painting of his mistress, and the high-point of our collection, so...um...did you say vampires?"

A scream echoed down from the stairs, snapping the pair back to reality. Xander's eye went wide, "That sounded like-let's go!"

He and Faith charged forward, leaving the gallery behind, and a moment later were pounding up the stairs three-at-a-time...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Her name was Ariel and despite the fact that being fifty percent demon gave her amazing agility and strength which greatly defied her muscle-to-mass ratio, she still had one phobia above all others: heights. She didn't even like standing on tip-toes, so ending up on the windy, snow-covered roof of New York City's most famous art museum wasn't on her Top Ten list, that's for sure. Neither was facing off against three vampires _while_ being on said roof.

Three vampires who obviously enjoyed being up here.

Ariel fought not to shiver in the brisk wind whistling across the domed roof. _Faith wanted to hit the malls_, she brooded darkly, _and Xander wanted to go to that Sci-Fi convention at Madison Square, which might have been sorta fun come to think about it, but noooo, I had to insist on checking out the Umberto Boccioni exhibition before it left. Next time I'm keeping my stupid mouth shut..._

"You're not quite human, are you girl." it came from the vamp's leader and it wasn't really a question.

"Looks who's talking." and she swung a punch for the tall, white-haired vamp's chest.

Her swing blurred through the falling snowflakes, flying faster then what would be considered humanely-possible. And the dapper vampire in the evening suit blocked it smoothly, then bent and nailed her with a crisp stomach-slam, "You'll find I'm not your garden-variety blood sucker." he spoke the last two words with obvious distaste.

Trailed by the white stream of her forced exhale, Ariel flew backwards towards the edge of the roof, her Manolo Blahnik pumps providing zero traction. Arms pinwheeling, she spun round and kicked back desperately, reversing her direction and sending herself slamming back onto the slick surface. She slid through the snow and smacked into the base of a towering flag pole. It clanged and vibrated, the American flag fluttering high above snapping in the wind.

"Ow, that smarts." Ariel rubbed at the back of her bruised head.

Cronin zipped his stolen painting up in a hard-case folio then signaled to his two remaining cronies, "Eviscerate her."

The two vamps dived for Ariel, growling like panthers. She managed to get to her feet and side-step the first attacker around the pole. She snagged the pipe with one elbow and kicked off, spun about it fast.

They grabbed at her but she revolve-dodged in a blur, then nailed the first with a punch to the chest, spun back and low the other way and smashed her legs into the knees of the second. There was a splinter of crunching bone and he fell screaming to the roof beside the other downed vamp. Ariel let go and landed beside the pole in a crouch, tore off her shoes and shot to her now bare feet, whipped up the foot-wear like weapons.

Cronin chuckled dryly at her from across the domed roof top, "You must be joking."

"About crocodile slingbacks? Never." and as the two vampires tried to rise beside her, she whipped the shoes down into their chests, heels first. They both detonated into nothingness and she straightened up with a wicked grin, "Four inches of wood is four inches of wood." then she charged Cronin, shoes spinning like sais in her lithe fingers.

He gaped and spun about, took off running, with the stolen painting under his arm.

Wind whistled across the circular white roof and suddenly they were charging down a sloping angle toward the other side. Ariel swallowed her fear and doubled her speed. _If it was Xander up here instead of me, he wouldn't let it bother him_, she mused. _So neither will I!_

The image of the bold demon hunter flew past her hazel eyes and for a moment she felt a confident warmth rise up within her, so she focused it, bowed over and sprang.

She twirled in the air and landed backwards facing Cronin, shoes raised and ready. But he won the race. He shifted his free shoulder up and slammed into her, they catapulted backwards toward the drop off! The backs of Ariel's legs slammed into the raised edge, her arms whipped about desperately, caught the edge just in time. Her pumps plummeted over the edge and vanished.

"No more weapons, half-breed!" Cronin snarled as he smashed her across the face. Her head whipped round, blood spraying from her lips. His goateed face vamped and he caught her by the shoulders and bent in, "I'll bet you still taste good, though!"

A hand snagged his hair and wrenched him back. He was spun about and slugged in the stomach. He stumbled back, got another punch to the head and fell to his knees. The third blow slammed him down on his face and he didn't get up.

"Hands-off the lady, Cronin, she's not for tasting."

Ariel's eyes focused on Xander, standing over the vampire, fists quaking and eye blazing. She smiled, "Thanks."

He grinned over his shoulder, "Any time."

Faith arrived a moment later, glaring at him, "Hey, forgetting who the Slayer is around here? What's with all the out-running of me? I didn't know you could move that fast, you been eating yer Wheaties or what?"

"Ariel was in trouble." he said plainly and tossed her his stake, "But you can do the honors." and he turned back and went to Ariel's side.

Faith fisted the wooden weapon and stalked toward the downed vamp. _Heh, I'll bet Xander wouldn't run that fast if I was in trouble._ She crouched and swung up the stake, brought it down-Cronin rolled over fast and caught her wrist!

"I'm not that easy to kill!" he wrenched her arm to the side and smashed her across the face. Faith crashed backwards into the snow and he flew to his feet, turned and sprang at Xander and Ariel, "Over we go!"

And over they all did go...

"CRAP! NO!" Faith struggled in the slippery slush and rolled over, bucked to her feet and charged to the end of the roof, caught the edge and looked down desperately. _Awwww no..._

Eight stories down, Cronin landed evenly on the sidewalk, bent knees cracking loudly. Screaming people split away in all directions. He straightened up and hefted the folio, glanced upwards for a moment with a proud grin, then his face morphed back to human once more. Whistling a merry tune he set off into the night.

Eight stories above, Faith stared down the sheer length of the white concrete wall. And ten meters below her, half-hidden by the shadows of the frozen night, Xander swung in the wind. One arm was flung out beneath him, grasping Ariel's left wrist in a tight grip, while the other hung from a protruding length of narrow steel, fingers clinging to it with every ounce of strength he could muster.

He looked upwards desperately at the gaping face high above, "Faith! I can't...do this...much...longer!"

The Slayer spun about, eyes darting desperately, then she took off running. Down below, Ariel looked up, face very pale.

"Let... Let me go."

"No way!"

"Just...just do it, Xander! I might be able to survive the fall-"

"No! Just hold still!" _Come on Faith_, he begged mentally, _don't let me down! Literally! Come on!_

Ariel stared up at him, as the chill wind tore at her clothing, then raised her free hand and grabbed his wrist. Xander looked down at her, "Good! Okay...now try to-" she dug in with her nails.

"What the HELL are you DOING!"

"What...I...have...to!" and she gritted her teeth and twisted.

Xander yelled in agony and his fingers sprung free of their own accord. She fell away.

"NOOOOO!"

Then a white rope dropped down beside him. He caught it with both hands and swung on it, stared down in mute shock at the plummeting girl.

Ariel flew downwards, the sidewalk rushing up to meet her like the fist of God. She flipped round so she was face-down and slammed her feet out. They struck the wall with twin crackles of rose-colored energy and launched her horizontally. She rocketed like a torpedo across 5th Avenue and soared down to crash deep in a rising snowbank.

Back on the roof, Faith gave a final heave and Xander flew up and caught the edge. He scrambled over it and flopped down with a deep exhale, then looked up gratefully. Faith peered over the edge and stared downwards and across the street. A snow-covered Ariel waved up at her and she waved back.

"No trauma, Harris, she made it."

"She did?" he shot to his feet and spun around, followed her pointing finger and whooped in excitement, "Wow! Now that was incredible! Did you see what she did?" he waved his arms high and Ariel returned it in kind, "Even Buffy couldn't of pulled off a move like that. Amazing..."

Faith shrugged, "The girl may not be a Slayer, but she can hold her own, that's for damn sure."

He turned back and stared down at the length of white cord, "Where the heck did you find that so fast?"

Faith headed off, kicking the downed flagpole out of the way as she went, "Oh, I have my ways."

His eye traced the cord's length and alighted on the half-buried American flag.

"Oh. Right, smart thinking, Faith. Thanks." he turned back and looked down to see Ariel crossing the street. He looked along the length of the curving white wall. He puffed out a relieved breath. _And a thank-you to whatever architect decided to leave that piece of steel sticking out of the wall...ummm...hey, where'd it go?_

But the side of the Guggenheim lay bare and empty. Whatever he'd caught onto was no longer there.

"But...I didn't feel it give, not at all." he mumbled, at a loss to explain the absence, "It wouldn't have broken loose..."

"You coming or what?" Faith shouted from the roof exit.

He shrugged and gave up, turned and headed off, just happy to be alive...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_An hour later, at 226 West 50th Street..._

Faith slumped into the soft, squishy brown leather of the armchair and massaged the vein throbbing between her eyes.

"-and then you should of seen it, she just kicked the building and there was this pink flash and then she was Astroboy'ing it across the street, it was beyond cool! And then-"

_Would he just shut up?_ the Slayer shouted internally. She tried not to scream aloud. I_f I have to hear it again I'm gonna split his head like a melon. First he calls Andrew, then he calls Giles, and now he's tellin it a THIRD time..._ Faith caught up a velvet throw pillow and covered her face with it, sighed deeply and tried to focus on happy things, like Johnny Depp.

Xander continued his pacing back-and-forth across the length of the hotel suite, silver cell phone pressed to his ear, "Yeah, I know, it would have made for a great pic. But I couldn't get my phone out, seeing as I was climbing a rope for my life at the time."

No mention of who held the other end of that rope, nope, not at all. Faith tossed the pillow away and glared at the back of his head, then stood and headed for the wet bar.

"Yeah, anyway, Willow, if you come up with anything on the Picasso or a vampire named Cronin, just attach it to an e-mail, okay?" he smiled into the receiver, "No prob, I will. Say hi to Kennedy for me. Later." he thumbed phone off and turned round, "Willow says-"

"-hi, yeah. Right, I got that." completed Faith as she tugged the cap off a bottle of exotic-looking beer.

Xander frowned and dropped his camera-phone on the coffee table, "Uh, you do know that ale is forty dollars a bottle, right?"

Faith paused in mid-gulp, then shrugged and continued to down it. Xander watched in admiration as the amber liquid vanished without pause, then she dropped the empty on the bar and belched loudly.

"Guh, not bad. But it tasted more like a thirty dollar bottle."

"Did it? Go figure." he glanced toward the closed bathroom door, where the sounds of a powering shower emanated from, "Yeah, but we shouldn't take advantage of Ariel's hospitality. I mean, we really know nothing of how much money Ariel might have-"

"You mean we really know nothing about Ariel." the Slayer corrected, then dug in the bar fridge for another bottle, "Just that she's, how'd you phrase it? Right, yeah, wicked-cool and super-charged." she dug absently at the bottle's cap, a scowl forming on her face, "Look, Harris, what do we really know about this girl?"

"Well-"

"Not a friggin thing, that's what. Yet on the phone all you did was gush about how great she was."

"Well she was-"

"Yeah, but not once did I hear you ask Willow, an expert on the occult and crap like that, about what she might be. She's half-demon, ya dig? Sure, she's been helpful and the like, but-"

"But what?" he frowned at her and his good eye glinted darkly, "You should be the last person to trash somebody else, when all they've done is help us."

"Yeah, but when it comes to good girls who'er hiding a dark past, I'm the freakin expert."

"Ain't that the truth." he shot back, "Hey, did you tell her about all the guys you killed back in Sunnydale? And the breaking out of jail? And the torture? Your checkered past could fill ten boards at least-"

The bottle whizzed by his head and smashed against the fireplace behind him. To his credit he didn't flinch, just folded arms across his chest and frowned at her sadly.

"That...that's not me." Faith said crossly, her gaze venomous, "Not anymore. You don't get to play devil's adjective with me, Harris. I've proven myself, 'member? You were one of those who voted Buffy out and me in as leader back in Sunnydale, before the Collapse. So don't get all preachy, right."

He looked behind him at the glass and suds slowly pooling on the hearth, then back to the seething Slayer, "Now you've wasted forty more of Ariel's dollars."

Faith dug in her pants pocket and pulled out a hundred dollar bill, slapped it down on the bar, "There! I've made good. Happy now?" she stalked off into one of the bedrooms and slammed the door so hard the knob snapped off and fell to the carpet.

Xander exhaled and shook his head. _Well, I screwed that pooch but good..._

He sat down on the couch and grabbed up the remote, thumbed the plasma-screen TV on. "Where'd she get the cash anyway?" he muttered, "A hundred dollar bill? I should have known she was holding out on me."

**End of Part I...**


	8. Chapter III: Part II

_Thirty blocks away from the hotel..._

The heavy double-doors swung back, spilling dim light into the muted study. Cronin strode in, folio held jauntily under his left arm. Dusky ruby light glowed meekly from the line of crimson candles which flickered about the long room. The Persian rug was rich and old, the walls polished mahogany, marble pillars rising up in each corner to support the tapered ceiling. A long oaken table stretched away from him and he walked down the length of it to stop at the end, where the chamber's only chair sat, tall-backed and hulking, casting it's occupant into a being composed of curving black shadows.

"Did you get it?" she asked.

"But of course."

He unzipped the folio and extracted the painting, righted it and set it gingerly on a waiting stand. He ran a hand down the length of it's gilded frame and grinned triumphantly, "Isn't it the quintessential image of melancholy? I like it."

She made no reply.

"Picasso painted it during his transition toward abstract, and you can see it in the shape of the eyes, how his move into cubism is immanent. Utterly breathtaking and beyond priceless in my mind." he moved back and picked up a crystal vial from the table, "Oh well..." and he splashed the treated acid across the canvas.

The paint hissed and bubbled, greasy smoke rose in a rush, and the subdued image of Fernande Olivier warped then vanished, revealing what lay beneath the portrait. Cronin leaned forward and waved the smoke away, then admired the glistening rows of Eldritch runes. There was twelve of the intricately-etched symbols in all, all arranged about the yellowing canvas, eleven of them orbiting a twelfth, itself five times their size and set into the center. Cronin's eyes danced across them hungrily, "You were correct, they're here. They're here!"

"Of course they are." she spoke at last, menace dripping from her stern tones, "You doubted me?"

The powerful vampire winced and shrunk back, looked to her beseechingly, "Never. Not even for a moment, mistress. Forgive me. But why did Picasso hide something so priceless underneath what was to him, a minor portrait of the woman he was sleeping with?"

"He did so because he didn't know they were there. According to research it's taken me fourteen years to complete, the runes were hidden by a glamour when he received the canvas. But my revealing mixture canceled it out, along with the paint."

"Brilliant." Cronin's eyes shone, he longed to try them out. Especially the large one. _Yes_, the thought railed inside his fevered psyche, _all the world will suffer my will when THAT one is mine!_

He looked back to her, "How long will it take to cast the brands?"

She flung out her left hand and spoke something in Latin. There was a technicolor flash then blue fire shot from her finger tips and into the naked canvas. The runes twisted and convulsed, energy crawled across them. Cronin gasped and hopped back a step as the painting erupted into blazing blue flame, then vanished into nothingness. With a series of echoing clangs, twelve foot-long branding irons crashed to the floor, the final one's base five-times the size of the rest.

"Not that long, actually."

Cronin stared in jubilant amazement, "Blessed be the Night..." and he reached for the largest.

"Don't even THINK about touching that one." she snapped and he pulled back his hand.

"Remember our agreement."

"Yes... Yes, of course."

"Gather them up. All of them." she commanded, as she reached for a quill pen and a bottle of ink, "Then summon the five you brought with you to museum. We will task the veracity of the brands upon them, as a reward."

Cronin scratched his snow-white goatee nervously, "Um, actually..."

She paused, "Actually...what?"

"I, uh, lost the five you sent with me. I meant to tell you."

"Lost? Lost... And how, Cronin, does one go about losing five powerful vampires of the the Clan Oranak, prey tell?"

"At the Guggenheim, three of the visitors fought us. One was a Slayer. And another was at least part-demon. They were good. Not good enough to stop me, of course, but-"

"A Slayer? What did she look like?"

"Long dark hair, slim build but athletic. She fought like a berserker. I heard a name, it was-"

"-Faith. Yes, I know of her."

"You do?" he was impressed, "Also, there was a man with an eye-patch."

"Was there? Well then, we can't let such a slight against the Clan go unanswered, can we?"

He swallowed, "No. Of course we can't."

"I'm glad you concur, otherwise I would have killed you. Now, summon all the disciples from the excavation and we'll give some of our new Glyphs a try. You remember this Slayer's scent, of course?"

"Of course."

"Good..."

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_The bathroom of Suite 907 of the Amsterdam Court Hotel..._

She did not see, she only felt.

Ariel felt the near-scalding liquid cascade down upon her upturned face and breasts from the over-powered shower head. She felt the clouds of rising steam prickle down her shoulder-blades and dimpled buttocks. She felt the slimy wall tiles under her splayed fingers and pruned palms. She felt the sea-shell decals under her grinding toes on the surface of the shower stall. This was on the outside.

On the inside she felt only emptiness. She felt hollow. She felt dead.

_Dying_, her mind moaned, _I'm dying... Mother was right, I'm a sick creature she would have aborted if only she'd known in time..._

_...Mother..._

For an instant, just a very weak instant, she wished the woman was actually there, present to help her through this, to lend guidance, even a kind word or gentle caress to the cheek.

_Who am I kidding_, Ariel hung her head and slumped against the wall, _Mother never did anything of those things. But if it's a swift slap to the knuckles you needed, then Mother was your Girl Friday with a yard stick. And Girl Saturday, Sunday, hell all eight days of the week..._

"Didn't do you any good, now did it?" her conscience channeled through panting lips, "You can't even Siphon properly anymore, you're losing it. You nearly killed that poor Police Officer last week and haven't siphoned since."

She turned away and slid to the floor, letting the spray fly free to drum a steady rattle against the glass doors. Her head drooped between her knees and she drank in the spiraling steam.

_...and now it's nearly all gone, the last of your power, you silly twit of a girl!_ The voice of her Mother tugged at phantom eardrums. _That's right_, the voice she feared the most declared acidly, _you perversion of purity, what should have lasted you more then a month was discharged against the side of a museum in a single, desperate moment that could have been entirely avoided if you hadn't been wasting your time with that pandering one-eyed boy-child and his hag-trollop of a Slayer._

"But they're my friends!" she sputtered into the spraying water.

_Friends? Tish-tosh, that's rubbish and you know it. If they were really your friends then you wouldn't have lied to them, wouldn't have pretended you didn't know what a Slayer was._

"Shut up." she whispered meekly to the drain beneath her.

_You silly girl, you're a demon and that means you have no friends. If you can't have the good manners to do the world a favor and slit those pale wrists, then you should be living in a sewer drinking the fetid desires of rutting cats or dogs in heat. A menace like you-_

"No! I'm not like that! I-I can control it! I just skim a bit here and there from over-sexed college boys and boring yuppies. They won't miss it and they're left with pleasant memories-"

_NO! IT'S ALL LIES!_ screamed her mother inside her head, and Ariel's fingers spasmed in agony and she whimpered, pressed to the tile.

_YOU ARE AN ABOMINATION, GIRL, AND I WILL FIND YOU! THINK YOU CAN ESCAPE YOUR PRISON AND HIDE IN THAT CESSPOOL OF A CITY? NOT FOR LONG, NOT FOR LONG! I WILL FIND YOU, AND THEN-_

Bang! Bang-Bang! came a fist on the locked bathroom door, "Hey, you about finished in there? It's been like an hour, you know."

Xander's voice ripped her back to scalding reality and Ariel blinked in the foggy darkness, then reached up and slapped the shower off.

"...uh, sorry! I-I kind of lost track of the time. Sorry!"

"No problem. It's just that I need to-"

"Just a minute, sorry again!" she got to her feet and slid the glass door back, stepped gingerly free and fumbled about.

Xander was fidgeting outside of the door and looked up in surprise as Ariel pulled it open and stepped past him, belting a complimentary terry cloth robe shut around her as she went, "All yours."

He watched the drowned blonde zip into her room and slam the door, then he caught up the latest issue of Cinescape Magazine and crossed the threshold._ Humph, no matter where I end up hanging my hat, I always end up outnumbered by the women-folk and waiting forever for a bathroom pass. Why is that? Heh, I must of knocked off the Sphinx's nose in a past life or something..._

He shut the door. When he opened it fifteen minutes later, Faith and Ariel stood waiting in the living room. His eye bugged at their appearance, "Guhhh... Did I take a wrong turn and end up in Heaven?"

Faith rolled her eyes and Ariel chuckled, "We've talked and decided we're going clubbing. You coming?"

He grinned madly, "Wild Trolls couldn't drag me from your side. Let's go!"

Faith held up a hand as he made to charge for the door, "Would ya change first, though? You stink of dusted vamp, and those clothes..."

He was taken aback, "I am the epitome of Men's fashions, I'll have you know."

"You're wearing torn jeans and a NASCAR t-shirt."

"And your point?"

Outside the ninth-story window, a dark shape wavered up and down. A single orange-red eye watched them unseen, flickering like dying embers...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Two hours and three clubs later..._

"Ugh, I just want to go home and watch Smallville, this just isn't fun anymore." moaned Xander, as Faith and Ariel dragged him out of a cab, "What makes you think this one will be any better then the others? And what actually was wrong with the first three?"

"Everything." giggled Ariel as she smoothed down her black cocktail dress. The cab driver's hanging jaw twitched as he stared at her.

Faith leaned in the window and smacked him on the shoulder, "Hey! You want your money or what?"

"Muh..."

She tossed a twenty at him in annoyance then turned away, "Bozo. What am I, androgynous?"

"Anything but, babe." said a passing guy in a silk tuxedo shirt and tight pants. Faith gave his Olympian-physique a once-over then smiled a greeting, ran her palms down the hips of her crimson thigh-length tube dress.

"Yeah? You like?"

"In so many ways." he stepped closer and nodded toward the doors of Club Odessa, where a line of hopefuls was already stretching around the block, "I know the bouncer. Lose Captain Jack Sparrow here and I'll get us in. You up?"

"Jack Sparrow?" Xander scowled with his one eye.

Faith dug an elbow in Xander's ribs then reached for the guy's arm, "Sure, I'd love to-" Ariel stepped out from behind Xander, showing herself to the stranger for the first time, "Could you get us in too?"

The guy's eyes nearly fell out of his head, "Muh... Who are...who are..." he pushed Faith out of the way and stepped toward her, "Hi. My names Todd."

"Hi, Todd." grinned Ariel, "I'm-" Faith reached up and caught the guy by the back of the neck, then spun and tossed him backwards. He flopped up, then crashed down on the hood of the still-present cab. She glared at Ariel for a moment, then stalked off toward the bouncer.

Xander sighed, "Fifth time this evening you've blocked her play, heh." he smiled at the blushing blonde, "Did I mention how much I'm loving this?"

"Like every time." Ariel replied sullenly, "I don't know whats wrong with me tonight, I just can't seem to control it, maybe it was the fight today. My header into the snow bank screwed up my aura or what have you. Humph, I wish Faith'd understand. It's just comes with being half-Succubus. It's not like I can just turn it off, especially right now-" she clammed up fast.

He raised an eye-brow, "Right now? What do you... uh, did you say Succubus?"

Ariel suddenly seemed nervous, "Um...I thought, um, she would have told you."

Faith's words of a week ago suddenly echoed through Xander's mind: _Her powers, they come from sucking a bus. Or something like that..._

"Ohhhhh. Sucking a bus."

"Huh? Look, are you okay with this?"

He thought for a long moment, then shrugged and linked elbows with her, grinned, "Am I okay with you being a kind of part-human demon? Heh! Let me tell you about my former fiance..." and he lead her off towards the door.

"I'm tellin you, lady, no more are getting in for at least another hour." said the annoyed and very large bouncer.

Faith dug in her cleavage and pulled out a hundred, waved it under his nose, "How 'bout now?"

Xander reached her side and glared at the c-note, "Okay, where exactly are you getting all the dough lately? Last week you were begging me for MacDonald's money, and now you're tossing hundreds around like gum wrappers."

She stuffed it back in her 'wallet' but didn't look back at him, just glared up at the towering man blocking the door, "I won big on scratch tickets."

"Look, we don't have to go here." said Ariel, "It's the hottest club in town, so it's no wonder we can't get in."

The bouncer looked toward her and his eyes widened. He unhooked the velvet rope and pushed open the door, "You're in. Enjoy Club Odessa."

Faith balled her fists and looked about to erupt. Ariel ducked her head and dragged Xander forward, "Sorry." she whispered to the Slayer.

"Yeah, right. Like I believe THAT crap."

Ariel hesitated, then looked back, her face suddenly angry, "Hey, it's not my fault. Maybe it's your make-up."

"Oh boy..." moaned Xander.

Faith leaned in close to her, eyes glinting nastily, "You SO don't wanna go there, girl."

Ariel smiled seductively, "Oh, I'm already there, GIRL."

"You wanna go? Then we gonna go! That's all I'm sayin."

"Let's go then."

"Bring it."

"It's brung!"

"Look, girls, don't fight okay, it's not-" Xander tried to referee, but Ariel pulled him roughly away and into the club, glaring back over her shoulder at her new rival as she went, "See you inside, rookie." they disappeared up a tall set of stairs, music pounding down at them from the second-story dance bar.

_Rookie?_ Faith raged internally, _Rookie! She SO did not just call me a rookie!_ Faith watched Ariel and Xander disappear into the pounding darkness. _Oh somethings gonna get broken now, guaranteed_, she ground her teeth.

Then she squared her shoulders and hips, and followed, her body swaying in the most provocative swagger she could muster. The bouncer shut the door behind them, ignoring the angry cries coming from the long line of people still waiting to get in. On the hood of the cab, Todd sat up groggily, "Uhhh, where...where'd that blonde go?"

"Into the club." replied the still enraptured cabbie.

Across the street, three black-clad forms stepped from the shadows of an alley. Cronin adjusted his red silk tie then rubbed his left shoulder absently, "Perfect. In there we can separate them. After that, taking them out should be child's play. Let's go." he waved at the rest to wait, then his trio proceeded.

Behind them, a line of yellow-glowing eyes watched them vanish into the club...

**End of Part II...**


	9. Chapter III: Part III

_Inside Odessa..._

Xander pushed through the crowd around the bar and gestured at the nearest bartender, "What's the best beer you've got on tap?" he looked behind him, "And you can pay, Faith, since it's your lucky day, lottery-girl...and where'd they go?" he was suddenly unaccompanied.

"Whoa...would you look at THEM..." breathed the man beside him and Xander sighed. _Gee_, he rolled his eyes,_ let me guess..._

The dance floor flashed and flickered under technicolor lights, and Faith and Ariel were in the middle of it, writhing and gyrating to the hard uber-rock pounding of Rammstein's 'Balleluja'.

As lasers zigged and zagged from every angle they spun about each other, never looking each other in the eye but very aware of each other's presence. The other dancers throbbed and pulsed around them in a quickly widening circle. All male heads in the club were fast turning toward in their direction, like iron filings to a magnet. The air seemed to have a charge and it was building fast.

Xander accepted his beer and leaned against the bar. _O-kay, so if Faith's so pissed at Ariel, then why is she dancing beside her? It's not like she can compete-aw crap, it's Faith, right-right. Of course, she's gonna try._ He shook his head in defeat and sat on a stool to watch the duel. _Jeez, did you see that move? Word to the Slayer. Heh, maybe she's gonna win..._

Then he shook his head and slumped his shoulders, "This aint gonna be pretty." he muttered into the foam.

"What isn't going to look pretty?" purred a cumly voice on his right and he swiveled round to see a leggy redhead in a skin-tight purple leather body suit. Her eyes glistened yellow-gold and she leaned in close and ran her fingers down his bicep, "Do you mean me? I hope not."

"Uh, no-no. Not at all. You aren't pretty at all, really!"

She puffed her bottom lip out and pouted, "Excuse me? I'm not pretty?"

Xander smacked himself internally, "I totally messed that, what I meant was you're beyond the zone of pretty, moving well into gorgeous territory. Really. Um..." he held out his mug, "Beer?"

"I don't like my drinks used, honey."

"Heh. I mean, can I, uh, buy you one?"

"Or two." she suggested, then moved to sit on the vacant stool beside him, "I'm Helena."

"Xander." he signaled the bartender and a second mug was placed before her. She dipped her index finger in it and came up with thick wad of white foam, then raised them to her purple lips and slowly sucked them clean. Xander gaped and she giggled, reached out and tapped his eye-patch with a long nail.

"Is that for real?"

"Yep. Nothing behind it but a spare hotel key."

She swung back and forth on the stool, "Mmmmm, maybe you could lend that key to me. Just for the night."

"Uhhhh...ummm..." his eye alighted on her left shoulder, "Hey, that's cool. Is it a tattoo?"

"A brand, actually."

"Looks sorta fresh."

"Oh, it is. Just had it done. It's all the rage you know."

"Mutilating yourself?"

"You're one to talk, pirate-boy. Mmmmm, I like the sound of that." she leaned in close and whispered into his ear, "How'd you like it if I walked your plank?"

The mug fell from Xander's hands and shattered on the floor. He looked down and watched as beer sprayed across the checkerboard tile and all over two pairs of very expensive looking patent leather shoes. His gaze traveled up fast to see two stone-faced men in matching black suits and dark glasses standing before him.

"Gee, I'm really sorry. It was an accident, I swear-"

"Mr. Alexander Harris?"

He blinked, "Uh... maybe..."

"Are you, or are you not, Xander Harris?" asked the second man.

"You aren't repo guys are you? Because I sent the bank a letter explaining my car vanished along with the rest of Sunnydale into that big crater. So when the insurance company pays me, then you get paid, okay? So-"

The woman got off her stool and got in the first man's face, "Go away! Xander and I were talking and I don't LIKE you."

The man responded by pulling a wooden cross from his jacket and thrusting it into her face. She hissed and stumbled back, hands flying up for protection. Xander gaped, _she's a vamp? Talk about being asleep at the switch, man, I must really be exhausted_-"Hey!" the men had grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him off the stool.

"You're him. Come with us, sir." they were much stronger then they looked and hauled him off across the club. He struggled but they seemed unstoppable, then they were down the stairs and out on the curb where a long black limo sat waiting on the right. One man pulled open the back door and Xander was thrust inside. It slammed solidly after him, then the car came to life and took off down the street.

"What the hell-you can't do this!" he lunged forward to the opposite seat and pounded on the tinted divider, shouted at the unseen driver, "Let me out! I'll smash the glass, don't think I won't-"

"I'd rather you didn't." said a voice behind him and to the left. Xander started and a cold chill ran down his spine. He slowly turned round and sat.

"You..." he shook his head in deep exasperation, "What the hell are YOU doing here?"

His host frowned thoughtfully and returned the stare with equal disdain.

"It's nice to see YOU again too." Angel replied sarcastically...

Back at the curb, Helena watched in exasperation as the black limo turned a corner and vanished. She made to pursue, but a firm hand caught her by the shoulder and held her back. She looked up into the stern face of Cronin and paled, "Master. I-I beg forgiveness. But he won't-"

"He won't get far." the goateed vampire nodded, "No. He won't. Because if you aren't back at the Chantry in an hour with his severed head, YOU will be the one the Clan hunts next. Do you understand?"

"Y-Yes. Yes!"

He pushed her forward, "Then go get him, child."

She nodded emphatically, then turned back to the street, sniffed the air deeply. _Yes_, she detected, _there it is, yes, I can smell him, it's so much easier now to track people thanks to the brand!_

Then she took off at a fast run down the empty, snow-laden sidewalk, kicking off her high-heels as she went. Then she lept high, a piercing shriek ripping from deep within her as she flew airborne.

She didn't land...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

It took Ariel and Faith more then a minute before they realized they were dancing with the same guy.

They pulled their shoulder-blades off him and slipped back, spun around and glared past him at each other.

"What a shocker, lookee here, you're doing it yet again!" snapped Faith.

"He was drawn to _me_, not you!" Ariel shot back, "And then you started rubbing yourself all over him like a rutting h-"

Faith stepped in close, "Call me a ho and you'll be pickin yer teeth off of this floor, dig?"

Ariel folded arms across her chest and leaned back on her high heels, "I dig. But you're still-"

"Last warning."

"-a ho."

"There ya go, now you did it." she shook her head, dark hair flashing primally across her spaghetti-strapped shoulders, "Now you've gone and made it personal."

Ariel gaped in angry disbelief, "And it wasn't before? You are brain-fragged, you know that?" she threw up a hand then spun round and stalked off, "Enough of this crap, I'll see you back at the hotel."

"No rush, honey. I'm sure there's a football team around here somewhere with your name on it."

Ariel stopped for a moment, her shoulders twitching, then she balled her fists and set off again, without a word. She pressed into the thick crowd surrounding the dance floor and was gone.

Faith's mouth open and closed, she took a hesitant step forward. "Aw jeez..." _Damn, now I've done it. I'm such a tool._ "Ariel! Wait!"

A hand caught her arm, "Hey, wait." he said, "We were dancing."

"Get bent, Affleck. I'm J-LO'ing, sorry." she shrugged him away and set off.

But he grabbed her by the shoulders and whipped her around to face him, "Nope, we're not finished here."

Her mouth twisted into a feral sneer that few men had lived to tell their friends about, "Oh, buddy, have YOU picked the wrong fela to get Kobe with-crap!"

"Hello again, Faith." and Cronin vamped, then swung a vicious upper-cut into her chin. She flew up and backwards, twisting in the air as she went, and crashed down on a table on the perimeter of the dance floor. It collapsed under her plunging form and she was dashed into the ground in a spray of splinters and spinning shards.

_Uhhhh, son...ofabitch... _She sat up, shaking her head to clear it, then wiped blood from her torn chin. _Damn_, she thought painfully, _he hits hard_...

Her eyes cleared at last and she stared down the length of the club to see Cronin was still in the same place, grinning at her from the center of the dance floor. She looked about her then grabbed up a foot-long piece of table leg, got to her feet and tugged the tube dress back down over her hips.

He held up a hand and gestured with a finger for her to come back. Faith grinned painfully and nodded, then charged forward, tearing up the laser-flashing floor, heavy metal music quaking all around her. As she freight-trained toward him, Cronin shrugged out of his overcoat and tore his black shirt off. Beneath it, a brand glistened in the center of his chest.

_How nice of him to draw me a target!_ she grinned, then she reached him, caught him on one shoulder, and drove the stake down with all her might. He just stood there grinning.

As the stake _shattered_ against his rock-solid flesh.

Faith's eyes saucered and she looked to the shoulder she gripped. It was suddenly very cold and had the consistency of very hard stone. She released him and moved back a stunned step and saw that all of his exposed skin had gone a deep, shinny grey. "Like Marble?"

"Not like." Cronin said, "I _am_ marble." and he drew back an arm, twisting his torso fully, then drove the hardest punch Faith had ever received directly into her solar plexus! She torpedoed backwards, folding up double as she catapulted, driving into the crowd and tossing people in all directions. She blasted over the bar, went THROUGH the mirrored wall in a crash of spinning brick, and arced downwards into the floor, driving through it in a spray of wood, to finally plow to a halt in the ground floor storage room, sending bottles and cans flying in all directions.

She did not get up...

**_\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\_**

Ariel looked up through streaming eyes at the horrendous crashing noise that suddenly echoed through the building. The walls of the lady's room shook and rattled. _What the heck?_ She darted for the door, but it was flung back before she could reach it, and a towering man pushed through.

He was built like a bulldozer and his skin was coal-black, his eyes red and piercing. Stripped to the waist, his massive legs stretched at the oily leather pants he wore. His feet were bare. Ariel stared at him wide-eyed.

"Uh, get out of my way."

"Make...me..." he growled in the deepest voice she'd ever heard, then he dropped to the floor on all fours. His face vamped and he growled again, this time a longer, more drowned-out call that seemed to go on-and-on.

Ariel took an involuntary step backwards, her stomach twisting into knots. Then, unbelievably, his body rippled and swam, and he morphed into a monstrous, slobbering wolf. Jet-black fur rose on his back and muscles rippled across his massive flanks.

"Oh my god..."

The wolf-thing barred inch-long yellow fangs and howled, then lept at her...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

"Look, Xander-"

He cut him off with an angry index finger, "Don't even try it, I'm not uninformed. I know all about your return to the dark side. So don't even try it!"

Angel sighed, "I have my soul back, that was a year ago-"

"No! Not that. Faith and Willow filled me in. No, I mean your more recent melding with the ultimate evil." he shook his head in disgust, "Lawyers. And demonic, Apocalypsey ones at that. I mean, how _low_ can you go? Are there no depths to which you won't sink?"

"Xander-"

"And now here you are to sign me up, to seduce me into their pinstriped devilish ranks. Well, no way, pal! It ain't gonna happen! Don't bother to dig out your satanic contracts, this thumb is staying seriously un-pricked, no signing in blood me, uh-uh, no way, no how! So-"

"WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP!" Angel roared and the windows shook.

Xander hesitated for a moment, eye narrowing. He frowned, not liking being jarred from what was turning into a very enjoyable rant. He hadn't even started with the LA Law references. He sat back and shrugged his shoulders, "What then?"

Angel licked his lips nervously and fidgeted in his seat, then looked away. When he looked back his expression twisted Xander's stomach.

"Look... it's Cordelia. Um, she..."

Xander's face was stone, "She what? What are you trying to s-" the sunroof exploded inwards with a _crash_ and the two men threw up their arms as glass sprayed in all directions! There was a flapping of huge wings and with a high-pitched shriek a huge black bat dragged itself through and fell to the floor between their seats.

With a sound like bubbling flesh, it transformed into the woman Xander had met back in the club, her forehead, eyes and teeth vamped and filled with wrath.

"Miss me, lover?" she asked, then sprang hissing at him...

**To be continued...**

**End of Chapter III...  
**


	10. Chapter IV: Part I

**SLAYERS: THREE OF A KIND**

**Chapter IV -**** High Roller**

_One past Midnight, in the cruel and gritty depths of NYC..._

The two Wolfram & Hart bodyguards sat side-by-side in the dark cockpit of the jet-black Mercedes SUV, as it trailed their CEO's limo through the snow-covered uptown streets. Johnston drove on the left, his eyes locked on the wide chrome bumper a car-length ahead, while Gharman sat on the passenger side, speaking softly into a Bluetooth earpiece.

"-yes, understood. I will relay that to Mr. Angel when I get the chance... No, it's impossible to do so now, he left strict orders not to be dis-I understand, Ms. Kendall, yes, I really do, but-yes, I know you're his personal assistant, but once again, Mr. Angel left strict orders-no, I do not know why his cell is turned off, but-yes...yes...I see..."

He tapped the earpiece to mute and shared a look with his partner. Then the driver returned his gaze to the vehicle in front of them. And a dark shape hurtled downwards and crashed through the limo's sunroof!

"Did you see that?"

"_Why are you being so difficult?_" the woman's voice buzzed from in the earpiece, "_I'm SO going to have you fired_-" Gharman broke the connection and hit the the emergency signal key on the side of his wristwatch.

Ahead, the limo swerved back and forth dangerously, accelerating rapidly. Johnston pressed the pedal and they moved to close, while Gharman popped the compartment between their seats and began pulling out weapons...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Inside the limo, everything was utter chaos.

The vampiress hissed and tore at her target, legs and feet flying, arms ripping back-and-forth. Angel's initial shock vanished and he launched himself into the fray, falling on her back, tried to get an arm around her shoulders to yank her off Xander, but she was very strong, perhaps twice his equal, and whipped into a blood-frenzy. He got a hard elbow in the side of the head and fell back, Helena swung up a long-nailed hand then slashed for Xander's throat. He blocked with his arms and drove her blow high, she scored his right cheek instead. He yelled in pain, pulled a stake from his jacket and drove it for her chest, she caught his wrist and swung a punch for his face, he ducked. The blow smashed through the tinted divider and punched through the back of the driver's head, killing him instantly.

"Great!" shouted the recovered Angel as he reached for Xander's assassin.

The now driverless limo whipped hard to the right and drove onto the sidewalk, scattering nocturnal pedestrians in all directions. It clipped a mailbox, plowed through a phone booth in a spray of metal and glass, then drove into the rising half-wall of the 86th Street subway exit.

The front compacted in a shriek of crushing grill, and the dead driver went through the windshield. He flew ten feet then plowed into a line of garbage cans. The limo's back-end rose up then clanged back down and the trunk flapped free.

"Damn! Look out!" shouted Gharman in the trailing security vehicle.

The SUV fish-tailed to a stop beside the crash and the two black-suited bodyguards exploded from it, surged forward, Gharman tossing his partner an Ithaca stakeout shotgun. He hefted his own 5.7mm FN P90 sub-machine gun and together they stalked toward the now very silent limousine.

They split, each for a different side, as steam ghosted up from the acordiened hood. They glanced at each other through their dark glasses for a moment, then moved in. Johnston jacked a cartridge into his shotgun's chamber and reached for the left rear door-it flew back and a black shape burst free, shrieked forward and up, slashing him across the face with claws as it rocketed skyward! He screamed and fell backwards in a spray of blood, pulling the trigger as he fell, blasting off a shot before he rammed back onto the cement.

With a rustle of leather, Angel jumped free of his limo, and his gaze lanced upwards toward the circling shape high above, "Hey! Where you going? We aren't finished here!"

The other door clanked back and Xander, face and hands blood-stained and scratched, pulled himself out and stumbled onto the street, "Wha... What did I ever do to _her_?" the ratchet of an automatic weapon snapped him out of his delirium and his eye focused on Gharman, who had the lethal P90 pointed at his face.

"You lured us into an ambush!"

"Ambush? Me? What? NO!" Xander waved his arms in surrender and looked back over his shoulder, "Hey! Angel! Little help, Agent Smith here is going Virus!"

"Harris had nothing to do with it. Stand down." Angel crouched over his downed guard, his leather duster cascading across the snowy sidewalk. _Dead. Or at least, not breathing and missing half your face. Same difference I expect..._

He took the shotgun from the man's limp fingers and stood, "Take point, Gharman. Something tells me this isn't over."

The remaining bodyguard moved back and lowered his weapon from Xander's general direction but he still was watching him from the corner of his eye.

_Like I give a crap_. Xander rolled his good eye and wiped the blood from his torn cheek, looked to the en-souled vampire, "Thanks. I suppose..."

"Not accepted." Angel rounded the limo, his vigil on the night sky unwavering, "She was after you, not me. And it seemed personal. Bringing some of that Sunnydale charisma to NYC I see."

"Yeah, sure, it just wouldn't be the same without some demon-dame trying to extract my vital organs. Look, it's not my fault, she tried to pick me up back at the club-"

"Tried to pick _you_ up? You sure you don't have that backwards?"

"So funny." Xander replied sarcastically, "Hey, Angel, did I remember to thank you for your impromptu kidnaping of me? Nope, that's right, I didn't. Hey, just give me a moment to find a handy two-by-four and then I will."

Angel looked down at him and scowled, "Look, Xander, I'm not here to take your inane abuse, I'm here because-"

"The thing's diving!" shouted Gharman and he let loose. Orange repeater fire roared from the rectangular gun and slugs sprayed rapid-fire toward the plummeting black shape.

Angel shucked the slide-grip back and raised his shotgun, got ready. _Why do I always end up with the close-range weapon, anyway? Well, at least I'm not armed with just a stake..._

"Just let her get close and I'll finish her off!" Xander twirled twin stakes in his fingers then held them at the ready.

High above but closing fast, the monster bat banked and weaved, dodging Gharman's fire cleanly, then it's hideous mouth opened and it shrieked. The howl cycled up into supersonic, then ultrasonic, then beyond. Below, the three men convulsed as one and involuntarily let go of their weaponry, slapped hands to their ears.

"Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!" howled Gharman as he stumbled backwards. Angel fell against the side of the limo while Xander dropped to one knee.

"G-Get down!" Xander tried to shout over the horrible tonal-attack, he could see what was coming.

He got back up and rushed toward the reeling bodyguard, hands still clamped to the sides of his head. The bat zoomed downwards, backswept wings flying forward and it skimmed half a meter from the pavement then torpedoed into Gharman, bowling him over in a blur of flying foot-talons and gnashing fangs! The ultrasonic cry vanished and was replaced by the guard's agonized screams, as Helena began to tear at his neck and throat.

Xander, blood steaming down from his ears, reached them and caught the creature by a wing, yanked it off the downed man with a furious grunt. Angel charged forward, swinging the shotgun by it's barrel. Xander whipped the huge bat around and Angel plowed her like a pinch-hitter, sent her flying across the street. A passing MACK truck slammed into her, sending her screeching in another direction, she crashed into a news-stand and the weak structure collapsed in a spray of papers and magazines.

Angel stared down at his dead bodyguard sadly, "Two in one night, there goes my monthly Security budget. Now I'm _really_ pissed." he tossed the shotgun away and moved to the open trunk of his limo, popped a grilled locker open and pulled out a steel-bladed claymore. He spun the long sword then held it at the ready two-handed, "Let's finish this."

Xander pulled the silver Colt Python protruding from Gharman's shoulder holster free, "For just this once I'm with you." he spun the heavy revolver's cylinder then cocked the hammer back, grabbed up one of his stakes and stuck it in his belt.

"You are? Hah, that's what I like about life," Angel remarked, "wonders never cease."

Side-by-side, the two dark warriors moved forward, across the snow-swept Manhattan street...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_The Oranak Chantry, two hours ago..._

"Long, long ago, when the world was new and raw, magic was everywhere and pure-blooded demons reigned supreme."

The Mistress of Clan Oranak stood upon the raised obsidian dais in the center of the towering stone-walled hall, Cronin, her Second, at her side, tending a smoking brazier. Behind her a wrought iron rack rose, the twelve mystically-forged branding irons glistening darkly in it's shadowy embrace. High-mounted bronze torches lined the walls and cast flickering orange shadows down on the crowd of assembled vampires who wrung the dias four meters thick.

"Back then, the powers the Old Ones did wield were as varied and different as the monstrous god-like creatures themselves. And these abilities had no names, they just _were_, they used them like fish breath water and blood flows through veins. Without thought. Without conscience. And without hesitation."

She held out a hand and the chosen two ascended the steps and stood before her, heads bowed.

"But time, like all things, marches on. And the Old One's ranks thinned through internal bickering and treachery of the lower beings. And when the last of them fled this realm the powers that remained were in the hands of the only demons left: vampires. Like you..."

Cronin opened the grating and churned the bin's embers, sending swirls of grey smoke soaring upwards. She turned and selected a brand, then moved to the towering bulk of Drieger. The black-skinned vampire raised his left hand, palm open, shut his eyes. The Mistress slid the brand into the brazier and instantly the heat began pouring into it's base.

"In the beginning, the world was yours, and the nameless powers that were left gave you the strength to hold sway over all. You called the abilities left Disciplines, and no one vampyre controlled all of them, a wise precaution indeed. But like a double-edged sword, this choice cut both ways. For from the treachery of your servants the strength of demon was passed to a human girl and she became your nemesis. She became your hunter. She became your... Slayer..."

She drew the iron back and closed her eyes, "_Laxo-Tui-Potestas_!"

And she turned and drove the brand into Drieger's palm and the huge vampire threw back his head and roared. Not in pain or rage, but in exhaultation, as the power flowed into him. Red energy crackled from the base of the brand and in through the carbonizing flesh, and his roar became a wolfish howl! All around the dais the horde of Oranak vampires roared and cackled their approval.

"As she slaughtered your kindred the powers began to fade, to be lost. You had fought back like the magnificent beasts you were, but each time a Slayer fell a new one arose to take her place. And then, suddenly there were only twelve Disciplines left, each restricted to a single vampire. Time had run out and a supreme sacrifice was needed. The Slayer's strength was too great, too primal, patience was required. So the twelve gave their undead lives in a dark ceremony and transformed their abilities each into a single Dark Glyph, then they were hidden, to await a time when the Slayer's power was weakened."

Cronin was already heating two more brands and she returned the first to the rack, caught up the next one.

"And that time is... NOW! _Laxo-Tui-Potestas_!" and she drove the new brand into Helena's shoulder.

She screamed, the cry rose and rose, until it became ultrasonic. The brand was withdrawn and Cronin handed over the final one, pulled his shirt open and barred his chest.

"The Slayer Line is stretched thin across this fractured world and the time of vampiric rule is nigh! Now, accept the gift of this brand and with it the Disciplines will be reborn! _Laxo-Tui-Potestas_!" and she rammed it into his chest.

But Cronin made no reply, just stood there and took it, as his eyes solidified into the grey of polished marble.

"Your first victim awaits you, in this very city. Go now, and strike the Slayer down, her and those who aid her. Use what has been returned to you to slay she who would slay YOU!" the chosen three turned and moved off, left the dias and headed toward the looming exit tunnel.

"Go!" she shouted after them, "And do not return without the head of the one they call

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Faith dangled in the vampire's grip, in the carnaged back-room of Club Odessa, like a limp rabbit caught in the clutches of a mad dog.

But instead of long ears in his teeth, Cronin had long raven hair in his marble-fist and he held her high, her bruised face inches from his own. He exhaled slowly onto her cheeks in a breeze of carbonized particles and searched for signs of life. He found none.

"Pity. I so wanted to play awhile. But, all my Mistress wanted was your head, and have your head she shall." he caught her shoulder with his other hand and prepared to decapitate.

Faith's lips suddenly moved.

Cronin blinked, then leaned closer. Hoarse words filtered up at him. He turned his head, his marbleized neck grinding like a grinding wheel, and tipped his ear to her mouth.

"..."

He frowned, "What was that?", concentrated on the whisper.

Then "...rain, rain...go away... come again...another day..."

The vampire raised an eyebrow. _Brain damage? Or perhaps she's just dazed, regressing to an earlier, safer time. No matter..._

"-rain, rain...go...to Spain..." the Slayer whispered in a sing-song tinged with her Boston accent, "never...show your...face...again..."

Cronin hesitated again, narrowed his solid eyes and peered at her face. Her lids were clamped shut, eyes working fast behind the thin vales of flesh. For no reason the vampire could discern, apprehension was slowly taking hold of him. _Somethings... wrong... _He looked back-and-forth, eyes grinding in their rocky sockets.

"...rain, rain...pour down... but not a drop...on...our..._town_..."

And with a sudden _crack!_ the thin floor finally gave under Cronin's two-ton weight. With a rush of stale air they plummeted through, followed by an avalanche of beer kegs and wine bottles. The vampire spun as he fell the three-story length. Faith flew from his grip, twisting away as if in slow-motion, her hair flying in a glistening wave about her head.

Her eyes flew open.

Cronin hit, his right leg smacking down first, and it drilled into the cobbled floor all the way to the knee. Bottles shattering all around him in crimson sprays, his torso arced down and his head deflected with a solid crunch, his arms slamming in a jitter-bug upon the ancient basement deck.

Faith whirled about her own center of gravity, Slayer training taking over and fighting for control. She righted at the last moment and landed in a bowed crouch, fractured arm flapping down to thud uselessly against her side. But she didn't even notice it, for her sentience had returned, no longer was she raw meat.

No, now her body was once again the tool of her wrath.

_...rain on the...green grass...and rain...on the tree..._ her mother's voice echoed up from two decades earlier and galvanized her resolve. She moved back into the reaching shadows of the forgotten basement.

"Uhhhh..." Cronin raised his head blinking, "...that didn't go...the way I expected." he looked round dully for Faith, but she was nowhere to be seen.

_...and rain on the...housetop...but not on me..._

CLANG!

The distant snapping of hard copper tore at Cronin's ears and he shook his head to clear it, then pressed his palms to the cobbles and pushed with all his might. Beneath him, his trapped leg crunched and writhed, but would not come free.

_...rain, rain, go away...come again on washing day..._

Footsteps reverberated about him, his gaze snapped back-and-forth, behind him, but he couldn't see anything in what thin light was filtering down from the ceiling twenty-five feet above.

"Where are you? You can't defeat me! I have the Discipline of Stone now! It makes me invincible, Faith! Your only chance now is to run!"

"Rain, rain, go to Germany..." hissed the Slayer's voice, he desperately tried to pinpoint it, but failed, "...and remain there permanently."

_I-I've got to get free! NOW!_ he bent at the waist, squared his shoulders, then pushed with everything he had. _GEHHHHHHHH! Come...ON..._

"Rain, rain, go away..." IT WAS DIRECTLY BEHIND HIM! Desperation fueled his titanic effort and with a spray of gravel and cobbles his leg pulled free. He rolled across the floor with a sound like slamming coffin lids then thudded down on his back, breathing hard. Cronin gasped in relief and grinned triumphantly, "Now... Now you're going to pay in blood, bitch!"

"Come again on my WEDDING DAY!" and Faith landed on his chest and brought a six-foot copper pipe down one-handed on his skull with everything left in her.

Cronin's head was knocked backwards in an explosion of bursting stars and clanged off the floor. Faith swung back then brought the pipe down again. And again! And again-and-again-and-again-and-again!

"BASTARD! I'LL _KILL_ YOU!" WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

Then she halted, arm raised for another blow, and looked down at him, a smile curling her bruised lips, "I...I did it. He's dead."

Cronin looked up and grinned, shook his chipped and pitted but still very intact head, "Nope. Sorry, but I'm made of marble you see. You need to try a bit harder, girl." and he caught her painfully by the neck, "Now I'm gonna make a fist and watch your head squirt three feet into the air."

"That...would be...somethin to...see." she rasped, her face going purple.

"I can hardly wait. In fact, I won't!" and he-Faith adjusted her aim and brought the pipe down on the center of his chest. It crunched into the raised Glyph branded there and crushed it to powder.

Cronin laughed, "That was a stupid thing to d-" there was a crimson flash and his skin returned to it's original hue of paling flesh. All of sudden the grip on her throat wasn't set in stone. Faith grinned widely, "Well whadda ya know." and she slammed the pipe down on his shoulder.

There was a crunch of bone and Cronin howled in agony, his arm flung free and she rolled across the floor. She scrambled and pitched to a stop, then flipped back over, hoofed to her feet, swaying badly. Ten feet away, Cronin rose up, his bare chest streaming with blood from the ragged wound in the center of it, and his right arm hanging limply. He took a step, lurched and nearly fell, then righted and focused on her.

"You...you're going to...pay for this!"

Faith looked around, spotted a case of Red Bull cola lying by her feet and caught it up with her working arm, "Am I now? Heh, looks like _you're_ the one who's gonna be payin the piper, monolith." she hefted the heavy cube and cocked her head, "I went three rounds with a lava demon this time last year, and let me tell ya twinkie, you aint even fit to shine his stalagmite."

She set the case on her shoulder and winked, "Whatever dove you had up your sleeve, Mandrake, has flown the coop and left you with bird crap in your top hat. Time to close the curtain, pal." and she swung back then threw like a Highland warrior.

Cronin turned to run but was way to slow. The white cube intersected him in the back and he went flying across the room to smash into the far wall with a horrible crash of spinning metal and crunching stone.

"Heh, wadda you know, Red Bull _does_ give you wings."

Clutching her seeping abdomen, Faith turned away and limped off to search for a way out...

**End of Part I...**


	11. Chapter IV: Part II

_On the dance club's second floor..._

The ladies room for Club Odessa was an opulent chrome affair befitting the neo-chique clientele who frequented the uber-trendy night spot. Pillars of polished steel rose up from emerald carpeted floors and the double-line of stalls stretching from the swinging entrance door were interspersed with personal polished counter-tops perfect for whatever pharmaceutical application was currently the rage.

A rust-red suede coach rested against the far blue-tiled wall, with a Victorian window-pane mounted just above it with a frosted-view of darkened Manhattan. It was a perfect refuge from the leering men and occasional women who stalked the dance floor and night-cap tables outside. But it was not a refuge from the creature who even now soared across it's narrow length, fangs barred and claws grasping for the slight blonde who threw herself to the floor in a desperate bid for survival.

The night-wolf twisted in mid-leap and plowed into the left line of stalls, bowling over the thin metal doors and walls with a tremendous crashing of limbs. Ariel scrambled to her feet and dashed forward, sprinting for the pulverized exit.

_Itsgonnaeatme! XanderXanderwheresXANDER?_ there was a howl-roar behind her and a terrifying scramble of claws on sheet metal, then Ariel actually felt the compression wave of it's jump and her survival instinct flooded her brain and muscles with adrenaline, kicking her senses and resourcefulness into maximum gear. _Not-gonna-make-it_ so she altered her flight path and ducked hard to the right-the night-wolf that was Drieger clipped her side as he throttled past her, knocking her hard to her knees and slamming her through a stall door and into the side of a toilet.

Drieger landed against the door frame, bending it even worse, and whipped his head back, snarled in rage.

She should be dead by now, her torn-off arm in his mouth, her throat a spurting, gaping mess, how was this possible?

He scrambled back around, kicking up clumps of green carpet as he spun on his monstrous paws, then charged back to where she'd been thrown. He reared up and tore the closed door free, smashing it to the floor, but she was gone. _What?_-the door to the next one flew back and Ariel, her dress all dusty from crawling to the next stall, jumped out and brought the toilet-tank lid down on his head with all her mite "YAH!"

The white porcelain shattered over Drieger's skull and drove his long-snouted head down into the floor. Ariel swung back a leg then delivered a brutal kick to his side that sent him flying into the wall, a mirror shattering loudly under his impact.

"You picked the _wrong_ night to come after me, Benji!" she snapped as Drieger looked round dumbly, his tongue hanging limply from his jaws. Blood dripped down from the top of his skull and his left ear was crushed and torn. His red eyes locked onto her and a long, low growl sounded from deep in his throat. He rose up and made to charge again.

"Bad dog!" Ariel flung out her hands and a neon-pink bolt of energy shot from her palms and slammed into him, knocking him back into the wall.

_At least my fight with Faith was good for something. Those guys in the crowd leering at us gave me a base charge when I passed through them on the way to the bathroom. I wonder if I have enough for another blast?_

Drieger righted himself and pawed the floor, furious and longing for blood.

"You just aren't gonna play dead, are you?" she glared.

There was no chance of that.

With a ear-splitting howl he launched at her, bowling over a stall as he went. Ariel crouched in a blur and slapped a palm to the floor, let loose with whatever she had left. Pink lightning crackled in a web across the carpet and slammed into Drieger, he convulsed and plowed into one of the counters, missing her by inches.

_That's it, the gas tanks dry!_ she spun on her heel and ran for the window, climbed the couch like a mountain goat and slammed into the pane with her shoulder. It gave and swung open with a _tang!_, smacked against the outside wall. For a moment she hesitated, knowing she'd be making the leap to the sidewalk ten feet below without the benefit of her powers. _No choice, gotta chance it!_ and she yanked herself forward and through.

But her second blast hadn't had even half the power of the first and Drieger galloped up to her before she could get all the way out, lashed forward with his head and sank his teeth into her leg, yanked her back.

Her head deflected off the window pane with a painful thud and she screamed in terror as she was flung backwards with a whip of the night-wolf's head. She sailed down and smashed to the floor on her back, Drieger spun back, slammed a massive paw down on her stomach and bent his head back to rip the leg from her torso-but he froze before he could do it!

_Wha-What? It_ can't _be! _the transmogrified vampire's eyes twitched in their sockets and he spit out her leg. The girl moaned on the floor, her eyes unfocused, and he leaned in and snuffled along her length, inhaling her scent deeply. His eyes widened and he backed up. No, he wasn't mistaken.

His fur and skin seemed to bubble and he straightened up with a morphing of shape, then was humanoid once more, his leather pants once more intact about his legs and torso, a gift of the Discipline of Wolf. His face devamped and he stared down at the prone girl for a long moment, then stepped over her and left the room without looking back...

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Pandemonium reigned outside of the night-club.

A steady stream of opulently-clad patrons poured from the entrance and all the exits, while smoke poured from several of the upper-story windows. Two police cruisers and one holding-van sirened up, a pair of ambulances quick on their treads. Emergency personnel burst forth and the crowd surged around them. Near-crazed valets were surrounded by panic-stricken men and women, and fist-fights broke out for keys to the waiting line of luxury mobiles.

Jason Sable side-stepped a woman throttling a man and grabbed his own set from the mobbed board, just before it tipped over, then dodged a wrestling pair and hoofed it toward his blood-red Lamborghini.

"Jeez, it's Thunderdome." he was reaching for the door of his sports-car when a woman stumbled into it's hood.

"Hey, get off of there! Are you cra-" his jaw froze and his eyes widened as she reared about to face him dumbly. Her face was bruised and her tube dress was half in tatters. But worst of all was her stomach. A wicked gash gaped from a wide tear in the dress, and blood streamed from it down her legs.

"Holy crap... what the hell happened to you?" he stared her up and down as the last of the crowd exited the club.

"Bad...sushi..." the battered brunette replied, as she fought not to pitch over.

"Sushi? You sure?"

"Yep... Was the shark. Next time...I'll try the octopus..." then her eyes rolled back and she fell forward, right into his arms.

He blinked down at her, then looked round for a paramedic, "Hey! Somebody help me here! She needs...help..." he trailed off as his gaze focused on the club's entrance, where a tall white-haired man, his chest bare and bloody, stepped forth, four others on either side of him. They all were yellow-eyed and demonic foreheads, fanged jaws twitching in fury.

"O-kay...yeah, that ain't right."

The goateed leader's panning gaze locked onto him. Or more accurately the woman in his arms, "There! There she is!"

Jason's very confused mind congealed instantly into one very clear plan of action: to get the hell out of here NOW.

Without hesitation he thumbed the unlock tab on his key ring, then hooked open the butterfly door with his foot, pushed the woman into the passenger side, then slammed the door back down. The four men were plowing through the milling crowd, tossing people out of their way like they were nothing, closing fast on his location. He spun and launched himself across the hood, slammed to the ground on one knee on the opposite side, grunting in pain as his bad knee crunched, "OW! Dammit!"

He slapped at the handle and pulled himself up, fighting back the agony, then he'd pulled the door up and-with a roar one of the monster-faced men sailed over the roof of the car and landed before him, "The Slayer is OURS!"

He lunged for him, Jason weaved to the side and the grab went wide, he swung a fist into the creature's side, slamming him into the side of the scarlet roadster. His arms slammed back and forth in a fast blur, socking the thing in the chest and face with ever ounce of his strength. Caught off-guard by the furious offense, the monster reacted defensively and moved to block, succeeded in knocking the human back with his superior strength. He blinked at him, "Wait, I know you. Jason Sable?"

"Sorry, no autographs." Jason pivoted on his good knee and snagged a stun-gun from beside the driver's seat, whipped it up and drove it into the vampire's (yes, it had to be a vampire!) chest. The device crackled and the vamp convulsed, arms flapping madly. Jason yanked the gun back, body-blocked him onto the street, then swung into his car, yanking the door down and shut.

A second vamp was at the passenger-side, scrambling madly for the hidden catch. Jason grinned and dangled his key fob, "Too bad, so sad!" then hit the locking tab. The doors power-sealed and the vamp roared at the window, spraying saliva on the glass. Then it swung back an arm and made to punch through the window to get to Faith.

But it held.

The vampire howled in pain and stumbled backwards.

"Gotta love safety glass." Jason jammed the key in and twisted the ignition, the engine behind him growled to life and he threw it in gear, slammed the accelerator.

As the last two vampires reached the curb, the Lamborghini roared off, throttling up to 80 MPH in a matter of seconds. It whipped around the corner and vanished in a blur of octane.

Faith's limp body was pulled back into the leather seat by the rising g-forces and her mind fought to stay conscious. Everything swirled about her, she was flying, her limbs going numb. As the street lamps began to blur outside the car, her eyes at last slid all the way closed.

"Don't you worry, I'll get you some help. Hold on." a strange man's voice said, she couldn't place it.

_Is...is he...above me? Ariel..._

"N-No...hospital...I can't..." she murmured, chin tipping down to her chest.

"Hospital? What?"

"...can't go...no hospital...there's a warrant...put me back...can't...jail. Don't...want go back..."

"No, no hospital. It would take too long to get to one from here, trust me, I know. Just stay quiet, try not to move." he gripped her shoulder, then turned back to the wheel and shifted into next gear.

"Ariel... I have to...no, I didn't...mean it..." she was whispering now, "Ariel... Xander..."

_Xander..._

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

"XANDER!"

_Dammit!_ Angel cursed internally, _I shouldn't have allowed him to take the lead!_

His arm shot out to grab him, to pull him back, but Alexander Harris wasn't the sixteen year-old freshman the others had felt the need to look out for back in Sunnydale anymore. No, he was a whole other person now, he was battle-hardened and most of all much more paranoid, thus much faster then the average bear.

Having your left eye pulped tends to do that to a person.

So when the collapsed news-stand they were approaching suddenly detonated in all directions and the hissing vampiress suddenly was on her feet and lunging for his neck, Xander was already countering, his focus not wavering in the slightest. He side-stepped what he saw as a clumsy grab attempt, swung back and whipped the pistol across the back of Helena's head.

Angel gaped as she was knocked towards him, then grinned and swung up his sword, clapped her across the shoulder with the flat of the blade, sending her catapulting to the left. She crashed into a street sign and went down with a flailing of limbs and a shriek. Her head bounced off the curb with a spray of blood and then she was still.

"Nice move." California's champion said, and he meant it.

Xander glanced at him, nodded slightly, "Yeah. Saw it in a movie once." he moved toward the motionless woman, revolver at the ready.

Angel's heavy brow furrowed. _He's downplaying it, but then he was always like that, never one for the ego trip. And to think Giles and I thought he'd never make it out of Sunnydale alive. Shows how wrong you can be about somebody..._

He circled around the opposite side, sword held out before him, and then they closed in on her. Angel frowned, his chest was still aching from the beating he'd taken back in the limo, "So, are you going to fill me in on whats going on here, or what?"

"What do you mean?"

"I've never seen a vampire as strong as this one, _and _she can transmogrify, into a bat no less. Something New York's water supply has that the west coast's doesn't?"

Xander shrugged, "Hey, it's news to me too. I thought that kind of vamp trick was restricted to the movies and books. Well, except for Dracula..." he trailed off and the two of them shared a look. _Woah boy_, Xander mused darkly, _How much do I_ not _want that to be the explanation here. The spidery aftertaste still haunts my taste-buds, no way am I playing Renfield again..._

"No, that can't be it." Angel decided, "Buffy dusted him but good, she told me so." he scowled and poked Helena in the arm with his sword-tip, "At least, that's what I thought she said." the vampire moaned and shifted slightly, exposing her left shoulder.

Angel's eyes went wide, "Damn..."

Xander raised an eyebrow, "What? It's just a brand. All the cool kids have them these days, so why should a trendy vampire girl who's watched way too much Sex and the City not have one?"

But Angel's face showed no sign of believing it was just a fashion statement, "No. The lines are too intricate and complex, see how you can't really look at it all at once? Your vision starts to swim."

Xander peered closer, "Not really. But then, I don't have what you call proper 20-20 vision. To me it looks like-"

"It's a Dark Glyph. I never thought I'd see one for real, but it has to be. It explains everything."

"Dark what?"

"Glyph. See, according to vampire mythos, we once had the ability to do all those things Bram Stoker talked about. Turn to wolf, become a bat, shift to mist, the whole nine yards. They called them Disciplines. But over the millenia they were lost as the vampires who had them were destroyed."

"The Slayer."

"Yeah, exactly. But legend has it some of us, the ones stilled empowered, sacrificed themselves in a ritual, so that-" Helena's arms shot out and caught them both by the ankles, flew her arms up and tossed them like toys!

Xander spun through the cold ether, arms pin-wheeling, then crashed back to earth ten meters away, rolled down the middle of the empty street until he hit the opposite curb with a hard thump. He coughed up a mouthful of brown slush and looked up as Angel landed on the other sidewalk, feet spread and sword still in hand.

_I really, really hate him, I really, really do_. He scrambled forward amongst the sludgy snow, hands slurping through the mess, searching for his dropped revolver.

Helena rose up to her feet and threw out an accusatory arm, pointed at Angel in fury, "You give our secrets away, brother, why?"

Angel tipped his head left-to-right, cracked his neck and vamped, then sneered at her, "Let's just call it a change of heart."

"I'll test that theory when I tear it from your chest!"

"You do that." and he charged her, sword sweeping back like a scythe.

She moved forward, arms spread and ready, and they met in the middle of the street, combat-engaged. They instantly became a blur of thrashing limbs and flying sword slashes. Helena weaved and ducked, dodging fast, and delivered a fast series of blows to Angel's chest, knocking him back a step. He replied with a decapitating-arc which she bent backwards to avoid, kept on going, kicking off into a spin-kick that ran up his chest and face as she rotated in the air. She landed in a crouch, he dropped to one knee gasping.

Her hand shot out and caught his neck in a brutal grip, twisted hard getting an answering crunch from his trachea, "You're an abomination! You die here!"

Angel growled and whipped up his claymore, she threw out her other hand to catch it, he twisted the grip at the last moment and the blade twisted round, cut off three fingers of her left hand then slashed across her cheek. She howled and tossed him away with a brutal thrust, Angel flew backwards and crashed into a brick wall four meters up, then slid down to the ground in a heap. Helena stumbled backwards, hand spurting blood while she hissed in agony. Then turned to run, but suddenly Xander was there, retrieved gun pointed at her face.

"Leaving so soon? But I thought we were hitting it off." POW! "Guess not. Oh well..."

Helena keeled over backwards, a bullet hole dead-center of her forehead piping smoke, and splashed down onto her back in the slush, limbs splayed.

"I guess I got my signals crossed." and he lowered his aim for her chest and let loose, "You'll find I'm stupid that way!" the Colt Python roared over-and-over, orange arrows of flame tearing wide gashes in her chest and stomach, as her arms and legs jerked madly. Then Xander was clicking dry and he tossed the pistol away, pulled the stake from his belt and knelt beside her, yanked the shard of carved pine high, "First dates are always the worst."

But before he could complete the finishing move her body cascaded insanely, brown leathery skin flowing in a near instant across pale flesh, her head mutating into a horrific new shape. Six-foot wings exploded from her back and down the length of her arms and legs, they in turn stretched wide to match the twin sails of triangular flesh. Xander gasped in horror and his aim was thrown off, the stake speared down into the fibrous mesh of her right wing and jammed there. Helena shrieked in a monstrous semi-electronic cadence and batted him away, climbed to unsteady feet and peered down at herself.

Xander slammed down five meters away on his side and slid to a halt on the wet street, flipped back over and stared down the road at her brand-new form.

"My body has fully accepted the Glyph!" she skreeeed, her voice now more bat then human, "The transmogrification is complete! Yes! I am nosferatu-pure! I AM REBORN!" the words howled out across the city in a rising shriek.

"Aw crap..." Xander moaned as she threw out her left arm, extending her regenerated fingers, and stretched the wing wide. Moonlight flowed through it, lighting it up in a ghost-like haze. The Dark Glyph was now spread across it a meter wide, and it's shadow blazed forth from the wing to spotlight Xander where he lay.

"Time to die!" and she threw out the other wing, crouched to spring and-Angel rose up behind her and swung down with his claymore. There was a meaty _slap!_ and her left wing and arm fell away in a spray of brackish fluid. Helena threw back her head and screamed to the high-heavens. EVERY window for a ten block radius, be it building, store-front or car, shattered, as high as ten stories up.

Angel's face convulsed in agony and he twisted back, dropping his weapon and slapped hands to his ears, fell to his knees.

Helena stumbled around to face him, her bat-like face a rictus of pain and wrath. She held her stumped shoulder, blood spurting past her ten-inch fingers, and glowered down at him, as his face continued to twist in agonizing pain at her sonic attack. She opened her jaws wide and pushed it to the next terrifying level, localizing the vocal weapon upon him only, knowing full well and savoring it to the most that the bones of his skull would be liquid in a matter of moments.

Then Xander landed on her back.

Blood flowing from his ears, he yanked her back with everything he had and they sailed over backwards, she crashing down on top of him, pinning him to the street under her madly jerking body. He gritted his teeth and wrenched an arm free, reached down her length and ripped the stake from her right wing.

"NOOOOOOOO!" she howled.

"YES!" he shouted back and drove it downwards into her chest. With a final agonizing shriek Helena vaporized into a swirling cloud of brown grit.

Xander and Angel lay on their backs in the slushed street, both unmoving and barely conscious, as the dust cloud spread high and wide. Far above them, the loud whoop of rotary blades sounded and the dark shape of a helicopter dropped out of the sky. It descended swiftly, kicking up a powerful wind, then landed beside the crashed limo. The side doors slid back and black-clad soldiers lept forth, sub-machine guns at the ready.

Xander's gaze flickered and he fought to focus it, but he was too drained, it was too hard. The men surrounded him, grasping hands caught him up and bore him off toward the roaring copter.

_Can't let them take me...can't let the Initiative have me...no... At least...Faith and Ariel...they only have me...but still-_

And then all went dark...

**End of Part II...**


	12. Chapter IV: Part III

_Back at Club Odessa..._

"What _is_ this?"

Cronin was at the curb, clutching his battered shoulder. Behind him the crowd was milling, while he stood staring back-and-forth between two of his fallen brethren. One was whimpering, cradling a bleeding hand, while the other lay half off the sidewalk, twitching and smoking.

"Where is she! You let the Slayer get away?"

"I think... I think it's broken-" Elias held up his smashed hand.

Cronin caught it by the wrist and twisted it back with a loud snap. Elias howled.

"Now you know for sure. Answer my question! How could you let the Slayer overpower you? She was badly wounded, I know, I did it myself!"

"You... You broke my _wrist_!"

Cronin caught him by the ears and twisted his neck half-way around. There was a crunch and his subordinate vanished into dust. He turned and crouched, yanked the fallen other up by his hair, slapped him back to sanity, "Where is the SLAYER!"

"Uhhh...he...he took her..."

"Who! Who took her?"

"Sable. Jason Sable."

Cronin stared at him, then his face shifted back to normal. He released him and scowled, "Who is Jason Sable?"

"The one who...who shocked me..."

Cronin fought the urge to dust him as well, it was hard, but the Oranak Clan had already lost too many disciples today. Instead he pushed the other vampire roughly off, "Go get the van! See if you can complete _that_ task, you idiot!"

He watched him slink off, then there was movement behind him and he turned to see the other two from the second team exit the crowd before him, "Well?"

The male vampire shook his head, "None of three were anywhere in the club. They must have all escaped."

"At least one did." he scowled, his snow-white goatee crinkling, "Did neither of the other Branded succeed? This makes no sense! My target was a Slayer, at least I have an excuse. But Drieger-"

"I saw Drieger, not five minutes ago." volunteered the other disciple, "He was in human form and stealing a car. I tried to question him, but he would only say he was returning to the Chantry."

Cronin cocked his head in utter confusion, "What? I-forget him, the Discipline of Wolf must have addled his mind. What about the man with the eye-patch? She was Helena's. Where is Helena? Has anybody-"

"Here." and the redheaded vampire stepped free of the crowd and entered their circle.

Cronin stared at her, "You're wounded."

"It's nothing."

"I expect you failed as well. Did you forget you had the Discipline of Bat?"

"No. It worked perfectly."

"Then...the man with the patch, he's-"

"Dead. Very, very dead." she grinned, "It was easy."

"But I told you to bring back his head."

She shrugged, "Sorry, but I kind of lost control, let the blood-lust take me. When I was done, there wasn't any part of him left bigger then a quarter."

He grinned, "Excellent, well, it sends a message, which is just as good. At least we got one of the three. Helena, the Mistress will be pleased."

"Thank you, I live only to please her."

The van roared up beside them and Cronin made to turn toward it, then paused. Instead he looked Helena up and down critically, "Were those the clothes you came here in?"

She smoothed down her black cocktail dress, covering the wound on her leg, then shrugged, "I lost them." and she licked her lips, grinned very sultry, "While transforming." and her retinas glowed a soft pink.

"Oh." and he smiled, "Did you now..."

"I did." and she glanced at the two vamps reaching for the van's side door, "Perhaps these too should remain behind and try to pick up the Slayer's trail."

"Well-"

She moved close, ran a hand up his chest and looked deep into his eyes, "And then we could talk privately in the back."

"What?" one of the two glared, "Cronin, I don't think-"

"No, Slade, you _don't_ think." the Clan leader didn't take his eyes off Helena, "You never have in fact, that's your problem. Do as she says."

Helena climbed into the darkened back and Cronin followed, slamming the door behind him. The two remaining vampires scowled darkly as the black van pulled away, then vanished around the corner.

"I've always hated that bitch." Slade turned away and headed back into the crowd...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Slurred and indecipherable voices echoed down around Faith as she floated half-asleep, captured in the euphoric embrace of a healing trance. As her Slayer energies did their work to repair Cronin's damage, her mind began to fight back to the surface of reality. The words became clear...

-when you called and said you had a young woman in the Penthouse who needed medical attention, I thought you meant from a drug overdose, something like that. Hand me the scissors, would you?" the first voice.

The second, "Why do you think I said to bring sutures and bandages? Of course I meant-hey, what kind of guy do you think I am, anyway? Dragging home crack whores is not really how I get my kicks."

"Sorry, but see it from my point of view-surgical tape. No, the smaller roll-I wake up to a panicky call at one in the morning-"

"Panicky? Hardly. I was the essence of calm, I could have shamed a Shaolin Master."

"Right! I can still hear you: Doc! Jeez! She's going all pale, you need to get up to the Penthouse, I'll meet you there! Bring your kit, no time to explain!"

"Humph, not even close. And I don't talk so high-pitched. Who am I, Prince?"

"More like Boy George. Anyway, Jay, I could hear you through the phone, speeding through the city in that disgusting waste of money you call transportation-"

"That's why they call it disposable income, Doc, 'cause it's disposable. I've seen your Marilyn Monroe wardrobe collection, so you shouldn't be throwing rocks in my green house...hey, look, I think she's waking up-ACK!"

Faith's hand had blurred up and caught the dark-haired man leaning over her by the throat. She sat up in the bed and glared at him, "Who the _hell_ are you?"

"Muh...guh..." he gagged out as his face turned purple.

"Let him go! You're choking him!" shouted a voice on her left, her head swung toward it and beheld a middle-aged man with a greying crewcut. His hands were stained with blood and he was holding a scalpel.

"What kinda sick freaks are you boys, what, did you slip me a roofie so you could steal my liver?" her hand slapped out and the blade was knocked from his hand, it spun across the room and buried itself in the wall.

"What? No! We only-"

"Save it!" and she wrenched the younger man across the bed one-handed and bifted him into the older one. They crashed backwards together over a glass end-table which shattered under their weight, sending them spilling to the carpet. The bookshelf beside it fell over onto them with a rattle of metal and magazines.

Faith pushed off the bed and stood, then had to catch herself as the room spun about her. She nearly heaved and caught her stomach to stop it's churning, then looked down wide-eyed. She was stripped to the waist, wearing only pantyhose and shorts, and her abdomen was wrapped tightly in white bandages. _Oh yeah, somebody ain't gonna be playin the piano_ EVER _again_...

Her mind still foggy and her perceptions slurring about like she'd just finished a ten-hour roller coaster ride, she lurched about, then spotted a black leather jacket draped over an over-stuffed chair. She caught it up and pulled it on, zipped it shut, then gripped the chair's back to get her bearings.

The room she was in looked to be a fancy men's bedroom, with awards and plaques lining the far wall, and a four-poster bed stained with what had to be her blood behind her. A five-foot plasma wall screen draped the wall on her left and there was a door beside it. _That's my cue, I'm gone like Vince Vaughn..._

She moved for the door, glaring over her shoulder at the two men struggling to untangle themselves from the debris, "When I get home I'm gonna be checking, and if anything more then my dignity's missin, then I'm gonna be comin back here and one of you is gonna be donating the organ replacement, you get! Ummmm..." she faltered before she could reach the doorknob, disabling pain wrenching through her stomach, "Damn, it's Burger King Revenge all over again, uhhhh..."

She brushed the tangle of hair from her eyes and blinked to stop the sparks dancing before her retinas, then tried for the knob again. But it flew back and two burly men in dark-blue suits spilled in, guns at the ready, "Mr. Sable! The maid heard a loud noise, are you-jeez!"

Two men trapped under a bookcase.

A blood-splattered bedspread.

A pale, half-naked woman ripping the television off the wall.

"Ya know," said Faith, "the only thing I hate more then cops is fat rentacops." and she whipped the flat screen around and threw it at the line of patio doors on the opposite wall. It hit in a crash of spinning glass and kept on going out into the night. She took off in fast pursuit of it, stockinged feet tearing a trench in the deep shag carpeting as she bolted.

"STOP!" shouted one of the security men and he leveled his automatic at Faith's fleeing back.

"NO!" shouted Sable, as he wrenched himself free of the shelves, "DON'T!"

The gun roared three times, but Faith had dived over the railing and the shots went high.

Jason climbed to his feet then helped Doc up. He ran forward and met up with the two men on the balcony and together they peered down the length of the descending eighteen stories.

"Where'd she go? I don't see her on the ground?"

"You got me, sir, all I see is whats left of your TV down in the parking lot. Jeez, I never saw anybody move that fast, and did you see her tear that screen off the wall?"

"Yeah, I know." the other guard was looking wide-eyed at the wall, where a line of five support bolts hung twisted and broken, "I couldn't have done it with a crowbar. I was here when they put it in, sir. They didn't hang it, they welded it!"

"Yes, I know." Jason scanned the side of the towering condominium complex for any sign of her, but all he saw were shadows and snow-swept balconies.

His personal physician smoothed down his stained green smock and coughed in the cool night air, then looked to him, "No normal person should have been able to even walk, let alone toss things and people around like that, with all the drugs I injected her with."

Jason nodded, "Not only that, but back in my car, I swear her arm was broken, but it seemed only bruised by the time we arrived here."

The Doctor stared at him, "Jay, who the heck was she?"

Sable frowned, then stuffed hands in his jeans and turned away, "I don't know... But trust me, I'm gonna find out..."

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Ariel, in the guise of the late Helena, even though she didn't know she was dead, sat hunched in the back of the black van, as it raced through the claustrophobic-confines of the Lincoln Tunnel. Beneath her, Cronin moaned and bucked on the back floor, his chest arching up toward her splayed fingers as ebony-threaded pink energy crackled up into her palms and pipe-lined into her soul through her blood veins.

She gritted her teeth and fought not to gag up her supper, she had only siphoned from a vampire once before and had sworn to never do it again. _Not like...I have...a...choice..._

Her carnal hold on him wouldn't have lasted much longer, it never had the staying power with demons that it had with humans, not even close. Cronin would have begun to see cracks in her Helena guise very soon, so if she was going to find out where they were headquartered then she needed him out of the picture. And she'd denied her appetite for much too long, she couldn't hold back any longer or she'd go berserk and kill somebody.

_Somebody...who doesn't...deserve it...like this piece of crap..._ she doubled her efforts and fought the rising migraine, as Cronin began to froth at the mouth.

"Almost there, huhhh..." she panted, biting her lip despite her best attempts not to. The garbage taste was still there, her skin itched like it was being doused in raw sewage, but she could no longer ignore the pure erotic nature of her feeding. It felt so wrong, so dirty, so damn _good_...

"Uhhhhh...yes...yeahhhh..." her hands slapped down onto his bare skin, dug at him, pried the last vestiges of sexual power from his very being, taking with it his very life-energy, nails digging at the mutilated mark burned into the center of his chest, drinking him in to the very, very last dr-"Hey Cronin, your cells ringing." the driver rapped on the divider.

Ariel gasped and fell back, the connection severed. Unlike humans, the link with demons was easily broken, something she'd yet to figure out.

Cronin exhaled long and deeply, chest heaving, then curled into a fetal position and silently sobbed. A slot slid back and a black wireless phone was stuffed through. Ariel looked up at it, fighting not to breath too loudly and betray herself, then reached up with numb fingers and took it. The slot slid shut once more

She climbed back onto the seat and peered at it's strobing green lights as it rang again. _Okay, what do I do now?_

"Would you answer it, already?" shouted the driving vamp, "You know how the Mistress hates to be kept waiting. And she'll blame me, you know it."

_Why the heck not. I sound like the woman anyway_. She pressed the answer key and held it up to her ear, "Um, hello?"

There was a long pause, then an austere woman's voice spoke, "_...Helena? Let me talk to-wait...you're not Helena-_"

Yanking the cell from her ear, Ariel went white to her red-haired roots and nearly fell out of her seat. Her Helena guise cascaded away as horror overtook her and she was herself once more. With a wordless scream she hurled the phone away, it hit the back of the van and shattered. _No..._

"What the hell!" the driver jumped at the sound of shattering plastic and metal behind him and nearly drove into the BMW motoring through the lane beside him. He looked round and pulled the slot back, peered through, furious, "Are you insane! You nearly killed us-huh?"

He stared in amazement. The van's side door gaped open into traffic and as he watched, a young blonde woman who definitely wasn't Helena jumped free and was gone.

Ariel flew through the air, kicked off the hood of a Ford Taurus to the shock of it's driver, then landed hard on the other side of the Tunnel. She slid in the dirt and rolled, landed hard on her shoulder. She was on her feet in a New York Second however, and in a moment only a rapidly retreating shadow...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Xander came awake with a start and sat up. For a long moment he stared about him, taking in his surroundings, "Uh, this doesn't make any sense."

He was back in Suite 907 of the Amsterdam Court Hotel, one of the many rented rooms Ariel liked to call home.

Everything came back to him, flowed back up into his conscious memory and congealed into a bullet-listed series of memories. The club. The girls duking it out over nothing. The vampire at the bar. The men in suits. The limo crash. And of course

"Angel..." he spoke the name like it was a dark oath.

"You say it like you don't like me." the man himself spoke behind him, "I'm hurt, I really am."

Xander turned about with a scowl, "Why don't I believe that?"

Angel, hunched in an leather armchair on the other side of the chromed coffee table, shifted under his long duster and shrugged, "Because I'm such a genuine guy?"

"You aren't even a guy, remember." he rubbed at his left temple absently, felt the series of welts that lined his forehead. He felt like he'd been run over by that car from Stephen King's Christine. Several times. Then been lit on fire.

"Let me guess, those weren't the Initiative's men-in-black who dropped in on us, but _your_ men-in-black."

"My men-in-black. Right. Sorry they took so long to arrive and lend a hand, but..." he frowned, his brow creasing, "Did you say Initiative?"

"Nope. I sure didn't."

"But-"

"Angel...what do you want?"

"Huh?"

Xander exhaled deeply and slumped into the couch, "No matter how hard I try to telekinetically-will you away, you're still sitting there, so I'm going to try giving in to reality, much as it pains me. You're here, you won't leave, so just tell me."

Angel stared back at him, his gaze stone. He licked his dry lips, "Tell you... Tell you what?"

"Tell me that Cordelia's dead."

"How...how did you know?" his brow furrowed even deeper, "She didn't, uh, appear to you recently, um, did she?"

"What? No."

"Oh. Good then. But then how-"

"Process of elimination." Xander explained in a monotone, "She's been in a coma for nearly a year now, plus you and me, we aren't what you'd call bossom-buddies. Why else would you make a personal visit to me?"

The two of them shared a long look and more then a minute passed of absolute silence. Then Angel pulled an envelope from his coat and placed it carefully on the table, "She went quietly in her sleep, no pain. She...her Will said...she didn't want a service, just her ashes scattered...um...and she wanted you to have this." he pushed the manilla envelope forward. Xander didn't take it.

"She left that for me in her Will?" his jaw twitched.

"Uh...no... I found it on the table beside her hospital bed. It has your name on it."

Xander didn't get understand, "She woke up from her coma? I thought-"

"No. She didn't. But she...she...it's sort of complicated... I could try to explain-"

"Don't." he stood and Angel followed suit a moment later.

"Right. Yeah...okay, well, I have somewhere to be. Sorry about your eye." and Angel headed for the door.

Xander opened and closed his mouth, but could think of nothing he really wanted to say. The door swung shut and the vampire was gone. He sat back down and stared at the letter, still not touching it...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

The elevator halted at the Hotel's lobby and Ariel rubbed at her eyes, turned away from the doors as they opened, not wanting to look anybody in the face right now, not even a stranger.

But it wasn't a stranger.

Faith stared at her for a long second, then hit the close button. The lift shook for a moment, then began to rise again.

"Um...hey."

Ariel peered round in surprise, then looked down at the floor, cheeks reddening.

"Um...hi..."

"I didn't see you in the lobby." Faith looked her up and down intently.

"Yeah... the taxi dropped me off at the back. I came in through the underground parking garage."

"Oh. That makes sense. Uh...about that crap back at the club, yeah, you know... I didn't mean any of it, yo, you get that, right?"

"...yes...I get that..." Ariel replied, her voice hushed, "...I'm sorry too..."

"Cool. Everythings five-by-five then."

"Sure..."

Faith smiled, then winced and pressed a palm to her stomach. Ariel looked up, concerned, "You okay? Hey, you look like you've been fighting." her hazel eyes narrowed, "Where's your dress?"

"I don't really wanna talk about it."

"Oh. Sorry."

Then the doors opened with a ding. Faith stepped out and Ariel followed. They headed up the dimly-lit hallway side-by-side.

"Just one thing," Faith said as they reached the door to their Suite, "next time I suggest going out for a night on the town, punch me in the side of the head and suggest renting videos instead."

Ariel smiled ruefully, "You got yourself a deal." she turned her key in the lock, then pushed through.

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

The heavy oaken double-doors slammed back, and the massive dark-skinned vampire burst into the darkened study.

"Mistress! We must speak-"

"Drieger, your place." she interrupted him, her tone as brittle as ice.

"But-"

"[i]Drieger[/i]..."

He nodded and moved forward until he stood before her, head bowed, "Mistress, I request an audience."

"That's better. Now, isn't it nicer when you give me the proper respect, which I so richly deserve?"

"Yes." he replied quietly.

"Good. Now... what is so very important that you think you must come charging in here like rabid bull, risking death at my hand?"

He looked up, eyes haunted, "The girl! The one I was tasked to kill! When I bit her, I instantly realized she-"

"-was my daughter. Yes, I have already put the pieces together."

He gaped at her shadow-masked visage, "You know? But how? How can she be? She was a demon, or at least-"

"Yes. It is a long tale, too convoluted and painful to relate. Have you told any of the other disciples about this?"

"No! Of course not."

"Good." and there was a twang! Drieger started, then looked down at his chest where a crossbow bolt had suddenly materialized.

"But I-" he dusted in a rush of fetid air.

She folded up the compact Persian weapon and returned it to it's case on the table beside her, then picked up a leather-bound tome and thumbed through it to her previous place in the historical narrative. Around her, the antechamber's shadows crept closer, and the fire behind her tall-backed chair crackled softly...

**End of Chapter IV...**


	13. Chapter V: Part I

**SLAYERS: THREE OF A KIND**

**Chapter V - Raw Deal**

_On an Earth not our own..._

The master of all sat upon his throne, and through it's conduit he witnessed his perfect will being done through the senses of the near-endless multitude under his utter thrall, and it was good. It was as it should be. It was as it always would be.

And then he spoke:

"BEFORE MY COMING, ALL WAS CHAOS..."

As one, two billion plus beings halted in their tracks and looked up into the oily-grey sky, whether they could see his fortress or not, and listened to the being known as THE ONE.

"THE WORLD WAS RAW AND UNDISCIPLINED..." his voice boomed across the planet.

From every speaker, from ever output screen, from anything that could transmit his power, the words reverberated. And even those very few who had so far avoided either death or assimilation, listened along with the enslaved, as they did every day at this time. How could they not?

"THE WORLD WAS RULED BY THE MEEK, THE UNJUST, THE UNWORTHY..."

On a blasted plain, an old man in rags who's weak ears had at last given out on him kept digging in the dirty hole assigned to him, his internal clock having betrayed him. Behind and to the left, a head with no eyes swiveled in his direction.

"THE WORLD WAS ON A DIRECT PATH TO DESTRUCTION..."

The old man's blunted spade drove into the hard, dry earth, and for the first time in two years it didn't go clunk. No, this time it went _spoosh_! He blinked puffy eyes to focus them and peered down in astonishment as clear liquid flowed up from the crescent-shaped hole he'd made. "Water...Water!" he breathed through cracked lips, then dropped to his knees and reached for it eagerly.

"AND THEN I CAME..." the roaring speech continued.

Heavy footsteps echoed across the field of holes and other old heads looked up from the daily recitation in terror, as the towering being marched past them. The oblivious old man raised quivering hands dripping in brackish mud to his face, lips eagerly puckering for the shimmering pool clasped between them. To actually have water more then once in a day-it would be glorious. And this would be untreated, undrugged, this water would be pure. He closed his eyes and smiled, then bent to drink-his head was grabbed in a grip of steel and he cried out in pain, the water and mud spraying away from his flapping arms as he was dragged free of his home.

"AND THE BALANCE WAS RESTORED, EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE FOUND THEIR PLACE..."

The old man screamed and begged for mercy as he was pulled ten feet into the air, he looked in desperation to his brothers and sisters in chains for help he knew would never come, but they had already looked away, eyes shut.

"AND THE CHAOS WAS GONE, AND IN IT'S PLACE..."

"No! N-No! I didn't mean to, it's my e-ears! I can't hear proper no more!"

"THERE WAS ORDER..."

"Please!" he was rotated around, away from the behemoth, and raised high, his face pointed skyward, towards his god.

"INSTEAD OF DARKNESS, THERE WAS LIGHT..."

Behind him he heard the hydraulic whir and knew what was coming.

"INSTEAD OF FEAR, THERE WAS STRENGTH..."

He felt the foot-wide circle of metal press into his back, felt it's temperature rapidly rising, felt the power building in it's core.

"AND INSTEAD OF THE ALL..."

He shut his eyes.

"THERE WAS ONLY..."

The energy canon let loose and blasted through his back and out his chest, sending internal organs and spine flying. They arced high, then rained down on the parched wasteland in a bloody splash.

"THE ONE..."

The corpse was released and it landed in it's hole, now it's tomb. As water pooled around it, the monstrous being began kicking the dirt back in, quickly burying the transgressor face down, just as he deserved.

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

"THE ONE...as it always shall be." and with that he broke the connection, and around him the world began again. He didn't smile. But inside he felt...good. Vindicated. Supreme. But not... complete. There was something missing, and there had been ever since-

"Bloody fantastic!" chortled a voice at the bottom of the towering steps which lead up to his throne, "I never get tired of that, I don't. It just warms my cockles. Well, it would if I still had them, but even then-"

"Enough!" he boomed and the voice fell silent. He didn't look down, there was no need. He just held out a hand. There was a rush of footsteps and thirty seconds later his servant arrived breathlessly at his feet and pressed the data crystal into his open palm.

"So, they are going to try again." it wasn't a question.

The servant nodded vigorously, "The New York tracking station is picking up the stirrings, they've begun the process, it shouldn't be more then one or two hours."

"I trust this time we won't...fail." the hesitation on the last word spoke dangerous volumes.

"I doubt it. According to the readings this is going to be the biggest one yet. I know you executed the station's personnel, but, and I mean no disrespect here, you get? You're the man, THE ONE, and your will is the way, but...but I don't think it was their fault." he licked his lips nervously, but the wrath of god failed to fall upon his shoulders, so he continued. "Right. Okay, as I sees it, the first time it happened, it was barely detected, and what could have been done without preparation? And the second time was needed to tri...tri...um-"

"Triangulate."

"Right. Thanks. The second time was needed to triangulate the source."

"I know." spoke his master, "But it is always good policy to make an example to prevent future errors."

His second grinned, nodded, "Yeah. Good point. Anyway, this time the boys are ready, this time it'll work, and-"

"Where will it happen?" he demanded.

"Um...well...that's the kicker. They've tried to pin it down, see, but there's too many, what do ya call them? Yeah, variables, that's it. Too many of'em, actually. But no worries, mate, don't forget whose ball of mud this planet is. It'll be nothing to go and get'em." he grinned widely and got a fist rammed into his chest for his effort.

He flew backwards and down, crashed to the floor far below. He looked up startled and shook his head, "Bloody hell! What was _that_ for?"

"Go then, to the station. It will be the best location to track them with. You will find them and bring them to me."

The servant jumped to his feet and nodded emphatically, whirled about and was gone. His master did not watch him go. Instead his gaze was turned inwards, as he contemplated a future ripe with brand new challenges, where none had been before. A whole new world to conqeur.

And _then_ he finally smiled...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Here, not there..._

After what had happened to him at the Guggenheim museum a week and a half ago, the last thing he ever wanted to do was climb anything higher then a flight of stairs. But so far this night was not about what he _wanted_ to do, but about what he _had_ to do. And what he had to do was climb the Brooklyn Bridge. So that's exactly what Xander Harris was doing. But he didn't have to like it, and surprise-surprise, he didn't, not in the least.

But at least he had a good view.

"Hey, Harris, eye on the prize." snapped Faith from five fleet below him.

He started then tore his gaze from Ariel's posterior as it wavered five feet above him. This was a hard thing to do. Very. _But her stone-washed jeans stretch across it_ so _nicely_- "I said stop it." Faith's voice railed up at him, as the six lanes of late-night traffic roared by, far below.

Xander frowned and rotated his head horizontal once more, flushed in embarrassment. _What the hecks wrong with me? What am I, sixteen years old again, fighting not to drool while I watch Buffy flex and crack-wise while she's dusting vamps in the graveyard? I don't have this problem with Faith, sure she's foxy and all, I'm not blind, but at least I can control my roving eye. I dunno, maybe it's Ariel's Succubusil powers leaking down, making me look up at those wonderful hips shifting deliciously back and forth, back-and-forth, back-and-forth, wee! Look at them go_-"XANDER!" roared Faith up at him,

He nearly fell off the ladder, gasped, got steady once more, then resumed the ascent.

"I...uh...I was only, um, spotting her."

"Yeah _right_, you were." the Slayer shouted against the honking and high whistle of the harbor winds, "You're spottin somethin, that's for sure. On the way back down, Harris, you sure as _hell_ ain't goin last." the gusts swirled harder about her for a moment and Faith halted, pressed against the rungs of the utility ladder, shut her eyes. _Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down._

She looked down.

She gulped and looked back up at Xander's butt as he climbed above her, "Guh," she muttered, "maybe he's got the right idea..." and she began to climb once more.

Fifteen feet above her, Ariel was breathing hard and fighting not to panic, and the last thing on her mind, whether she would have approved or not, was whether somebody was sneaking looks at her ass. She was much more concerned with keeping her ass from ending up spread twenty feet across the waters of New York Harbor. _Just...just keep going, don't stop, and whatever you do, don't think about what happened on the CN Tower-ohcrapohcrap-_she shut her eyes and froze, teeth grinding in her clenched jaw.

_Why oh why oh_ WHY _did my brain bring up Toronto? Stupid brain! Stupid brain! I'm gonna die up here! Imgonnadieuphere! Help! HELP! HEL-_

"Uh...Ariel?"

Xander's voice echoed up from below, carried on the horrible air currents plucking on her canary-yellow Calvin Klein windbreaker. _W-Windbreaker my ass! It sure isn't living up to it's namesake, I mean what the_ hell _kind of name is that? If I wasn't about to fall to my horrible squishy death I'd be looking for a lawyer and-_

"Ariel!" he shouted.

"WHAT?" she hollered back down at him, "Can't you see that I'm-"

"-about a foot below the top." he finished for her.

For a long second Ariel didn't move, then with delicate movements she swiveled her head upwards and pried her lids open a millimeter. A catwalk stretched off into the distance in either direction. A _caged_ catwalk.

No girl, demon or otherwise, ever climbed so fast.

Thirty seconds later, Xander swung off the ladder and landed with a muted clunk on the grilled-walkway. He turned and helped Faith up and over, then looked back at Ariel, "Hey, I was worried about you for a sec there-" she lept at him, tackling him in a tight embrace, nearly knocking him over.

"Wha-hey! I mean, uh, there-there..." he patted her gently on the back as she panted into his chest. He grinned and looked over at Faith, then the grin vanished. She was glaring at him acidly, hands on her hips.

"Heh-heh, what can I say. I was the closest to her, I guess."

Faith rolled her eyes, "I'll bet she wouldn't be hugging you if she knew you were gawking like Clinton at an intern while she was-" he frowned beseechingly at her and she shrugged, gave up and let it go.

Ariel herself finally 'let go' and stepped back, looked down at her feet in embarrassment, "Um...sorry...I don't know what's wrong with me..."

Xander smiled, patted her arm, "No problem, what are friends for?"

"Oh please..." muttered Faith.

He spread his arms wide to encompass the huge bridge surrounding them on all sides, "Who can blame you, after what happened at the museum. Remember? You took a header down the length of like nine stories, ended up in a snowbank. I only watched it happen and it still gives me nightmares."

"Right... the museum. That's got to be it..." then she looked up at him sharply, "You have nightmares about me almost dying?"

He nodded firmly, "Yep, I do. So try not to, 'kay?"

She smiled slightly, "All right. I'll try."

"You do that-"

"Jeez, would you two, like, give it a rest?" blanched Faith and she looked up through the network of woven cables to the night sky.

"It's got to be nearing midnight and we still aren't at the top yet." she looked back down at Xander and scowled, "You sure this is the right place? If this is all for nuthin, I'm gonna be plenty pissed, let me tell ya. They don't call it beauty sleep for nuthin, yo."

"Like any amount of sleep could ever make _you_ prettier." he crowed.

"Don't make me slap you like a bitch, Harris."

"Let's triple-check the readings then, shall we?" Xander dug in his leather jacket and pulled out the scanner-device he'd lifted from the Initiative what seemed like ages ago, even though it had only been less then four weeks. _Wow, four weeks. And I thought we were only going to be in New York for a single day, two at the most. Shows what I know. Now I'm starting to think maybe we're never going to leave._ He glanced over at the shivering Ariel as he fiddled the black device to life. _Hmmm, maybe that wouldn't be so bad..._

The screen lit-up and it began to bleep shrilly. Xander tapped a command into it's micro'd keypad and an aerial shot of New York State materialized. Faith leaned in as he expanded the view.

"That's really from a spy satellite in orbit above us?" she wasn't convinced.

"Actually, it's from Spy Satellite Number Four. It's the one currently in position. And...now it's Spy Satellite Number Six." he read from the alphanumeric line of text rapidly streaming across the top of the tiny plasma display. He'd become quite adept at using the device and had it set on stand-by for awhile now, ready to alert him in an instant if it picked up anything like what he'd discovered and photographed deep in Central Park's Bramble five days earlier.

_I just didn't think it would happen again so soon, and after another long fruitless day of Slayer hunting,_ and _produce readings a thousand times what I last detected. Of course, the spell circle I located last week had barely a residual charge, but still..._

He cycled through the readings then triangulated, looked up and to the right, "Yep. That's where it's coming from."

Faith followed his gaze and her eyes widened, "You're kidding."

"I never kid when it involves climbing bridges."

"And you think whoever brought that unicorn here is gonna try again?"

Ariel looked up sharply at the mention of Mercury, "Not if I have anything to say about it!" her gaze hardened and her expression became one of barely-controlled anger. She whirled about and set off with a new-found sense of purpose.

Xander shifted slightly closer to Faith, who had blinked herself.

"Um, are you as scared now as I am?" he asked.

"Gettin there." she replied.

"I mean of Ariel."

"Yeah, I know."

**End of Part I...**


	14. Chapter V: Part II

_One hundred feet above the climbing trio..._

If the three young people making their way toward this location thought the wind was bad during their long ascent by ladder, it was nothing compared to the torrent ripping across the bridge's central and highest point.

Powerful gusts blasted across the flat expanse of the famous Gothic Arch, tearing at the limbs and torso's of the six Initiative soldiers stationed around the perimeter. One for each of the four corners, and the remaining pair stood ready beside the tops of the two caged utility ladders, rising up on either side of the wide rectangle monolith they perched apon. The soldiers fought the wind, clutching their Heckler-and-Koch XM8 carbines to their chests as ballast, and sent envious side-long glances toward the center of the Arch.

A ten-foot ring shimmered there on the cement in glow-in-the-dark yellow paint, an off-center star stretching in from it at five points. In each section of the divided symbol a runic letter glistened. Inside were three individuals, two kneeling across from each other, while the third, garbed in black fatigues like the soldiers under his command, stood. He faced outwards and tapped at the nearly-invisible atmospheric barrier surrounding the spell circle, and keeping any trace of wind outside. It sparked green at his touch and he whistled softly under his breath.

_Well, if I had any doubts in the existence of magic before this, they're all gone now,_ he tapped the field again and observed the same results.

"Will you _stop_ that. I cast that barrier spell so we wouldn't be disturbed while we carry out the ritual." hissed the kneeling man concealed under a hulking grey robe.

Lt. William Peyton yanked back his hand and turned back around, "Sorry, sir, just nervousness I guess."

"Nervous are you? When I asked the Board to send me their best and most fit junior officer, perhaps I should have requested one with a more solid resolve."

Peyton frowned and folded hands behind his back, squared his shoulders and assumed an at-ease stance, "I apologize, sir. It won't happen again. The Board made the right choice, I assure you."

"Then remain still and silent, boy. And when you hear the passage I told you about, do as you've been instructed." he looked to the robed man opposite him, his rhythmic chanting was growing louder and faster by the second.

"The time grows nigh, Lieutenant, I am now going to start the recitation. Begin the meditation protocols I taught you."

Peyton shut his eyes and began taking deep breaths, his chest rising and falling in a rhythm, as the robed man in charge raised his voluminous sleeves, "_Eriyshon! K'shala, Meh-uhn!_"

His opposite did the same, "_Diprect! Doh-tehenlo nu-Eriyshon!_" their arms lowered and their hands touched. Red energy crackled. Peyton heard the sentence and reached down, caught up the sealed vat by his feet, headed forward.

"The child to the father!"

"The darkness to the night!"

The two men stood and moved back, Peyton stepped between them, popped the vat's lid then up-ended it over his head. Blood poured down over him in a gush, crackling with energy as it went. It covered him all over and splashed down on the power circle where it sizzled and steamed.

"_Eriyshon_," shouted the leader, "hear my prayer! Open the gates between this world and the one indicated!" power crackled from his fingertips and the circle blazed with red-gold light, the barrier field vanished with a jade flash and the squall poured in, flapping the robes and sending drops of blood flying in all directions.

"OPEN THE PRISON OF LIMBO, AND-" the robed man broke off as one of the soldiers flew past him and crashed into the blood-covered Peyton, bowling him over and out of the circle. He gaped, "What? NO!"

"Well lookee here," said Faith from her perch on the now unguarded south-side ladder, "the neighbors are havin a party and they didn't even invite us."

"How unbelievably _rude_." shot back Ariel from the north ladder, as she nailed her guard with an uppercut that sent him flipping over backwards, "Guess that means we'll have to party-crash, huh?"

"You bet your bottom dollar, we will!" Faith retorted.

The two women sprung off and landed in opposite battle-ready crouches. Xander popped up from Ariel's ladder and glared across the length of the Arch to the robed men, "Oh no, not gonna happen, I'm completely against anybody with your dress-code. None of that druidic craziness, nope, uh-uh." he reached behind his back and pulled a double-headed axe free, then jumped onto the concrete, "Hands up and step away from the power circle. Nobody's killing another unicorn tonight."

"I _second_ that motion!" growled Ariel and she stalked toward the still-glowing ring.

The leader stared for a long second, then signaled to the four remaining guards. They sprung forward, unslinging their guns, while he ran across the cement and caught up the semi-stunned Lt. Peyton. He dragged him back to the circle by the arm, "The ritual is still in effect!" he shouted at him over the screaming wind, Peyton barely heard him, he turned a blood-stained face toward him dumbly, "We must finish!"

Ariel shot up to them and grabbed the tall soldier's other arm, yanked him back towards her, "No way! He's staying out here with me, safe and un-sacrificed!"

"Let go, you stupid, interfering girl!"

But she held steady and glared around Peyton at him, "Hey, don't I know you? Right! You're that weirdo from the Plaza Hotel who gave me the uniform. Who the heck are you, anyway?" she ripped the Lieutenant from his grip and threw him out of the way, stalked toward the robed man, hands raised, "Let's just see, shall we?"

Weapons fire tore across the Arch, Faith and Xander ducked and charged the soldiers, weaving fast, the wind on their side at least for the moment as it was throwing the soldier's aims way off. Xander reached his first, as the man gritted his teeth and hauled against the air currents and locked the rifle on his chest. Xander swung hard and slammed the flat of his axe upside the man's head.

He went down hard and Xander dropped his own weapon and snatched the soldier's out of the air before it could tumble down with him. He gaped, his eye going wide, "Cool! The new H-K XM8! Never thought I'd even see one for real. And with the matching ammo strap too!" _I guess the Glock can stay in my coat pocket on this mission, this is _way _better_-a rain of slugs ripped by his face and he nearly dropped his new toy. He spun round, carbine slapping into a two-handed grip, and let-loose before he'd even located his enemy.

His barrage tore across the cement in a fast-moving stream, sending chunks of gravel flying. The soldier turned and dived out of the way, the shots missing him by inches. He rose up, brought up his own weapon again, as Xander pivoted toward his new direction. The man locked on, the laser sight skipping to the center of Xander's chest, as one flashed onto his own face. He gritted his teeth and-a blast of wind slammed into him and sent him flying backwards, over the edge.

Xander watched him vanish and unhooked one side of the carbines ammo strap, looped it over his right shoulder and clipped it back together, now under his jacket. _Hey, if it worked for Reese in the Terminator, it couldn't hurt here._ He stared after the dearly departed Initiative soldier, "Jeez...that was a lucky gust." then another blast of air knocked _him _down to his knees.

Unlike the others, Faith lived for situations like this.

She was grinning madly and throttling across the arch, weaving and dodging as the two remaining soldiers stood a meter apart, unloading at her, desperately trying to hit her. But she was a Slayer and their chances were slim, if none, and-and she reached them, caught their carbine's hot stocks in either hand and flipped high, using the carbines like parallel bars. She spun between the men, and her boots slammed into the backs of their heads, knocking them forward in unison. She landed on her feet, back to them, as they rocketed forward and over onto their faces. She spun back, "And stay down!"

They obeyed.

Faith looked across the Arch to see a robed man disappearing down one of the ladders, she made to give chase, but spotted a second robe flapping in the wind back toward the center. She turned and saw Ariel stalking toward him as he back-peddled fast, "Heh. Go get'em, girl."

She heard a shout and looked to the other side, saw Xander on his hands and knees fighting the wind, waving at her. He was rapidly sliding backwards toward the edge. She took off at run for him, "Hold on!" she reached him a moment later and caught his arm, hauled him up beside her, shouted at him, "Our job here's done, these dorks are off the clock for tonight! We need to get off of here, now!"

"I know!" he sent back at the top of his lungs, "But Ariel-"

"Ariel can take care of herself. She's a demon remember, she's hardly without her resources."

"But still, this wind, I think-"

Faith shook her head in exasperation, "Whatever. Yeah, you're right." and she turned them around, they pushed forward for the center of the Arch, heads bowed.

"It was you who brought Mercury here!" shouted Ariel as she lashed forward and caught the leader by his arms.

"Mercury? What the-What are you talking about?" he struggled in her grip in the center of the circle.

"The unicorn! Four weeks ago! Central Park! _You _were the one who brought him here, with one of these...these things!" she stamped her foot and the power ring sparked in response.

"So what if I did-"

"It's your fault he's dead!" the pale girl shook him roughly, even as her heels sparked against the cement, rose-colored energy of her own anchoring her to the arc. The robed man's feet were skittering madly but it was like she was a wrathful statue, her curly-wavy blonde hair flying madly about her head, "If you hadn't of brought him here, he'd still be alive!"

"I-I-I-"

"YOU-YOU KILLED HIM!" her eyes flashed crimson and her hands crackled with black-pink fire, the robed man screamed in agony within his concealing hood as lightning scalded across his body, "YOU BASTARD! YOU _KILLED_ MERCURY!"

"Ariel! What are you doing?" Faith was beside her and grabbed her shoulder. Her hands let go and the man fell from her grip, rolled away smoking across the Arch.

Ariel turned and glared at the Slayer, as she held Xander stable, "He's the one! He's the one in charge of the Initiative and they were the ones who brought the unicorn here!"

"Yeah, we sorta already guessed that. But it almost seemed like you were going to kill him."

Ariel looked down at her hands where sparks of brackish-pink energy were still flashing. _Nearly forgot, the last time I siphoned it was that vampire. I need to concentrate better when I'm using the power, or...or nothing, I just_ will_, and that's that..._

Faith tugged at her arm, "Look, we have to go."

Xander nodded hard, "Yeah! We gotta go now, before we do a Mary Poppins into the Harbor!"

Ariel exhaled, her eyes returning to their proper hazel hue, then nodded her ascent, looked after the man she'd nearly killed, "He's probably gone anyway-"

But he wasn't.

"_Attollo-Obex-Apertum_!" he stood just outside of the circle, arms raised, heavy robe flapping about him like the grey sail of a clipper.

The green barrier snapped back to life around the ring, glowing brightly, charged to full strength. The wind vanished and Xander stumbled at the sudden release. The girl's hair flapped back down to their shoulders and they rushed forward, pounded on the field in fury.

"Take this down, buddy, or yer insides are gonna be painting yer outsides!" railed Faith, her fists hammering over-and-over against the crackling field.

The dark hood only stared back at them, he made no reply. But he threw his arms wide and began to chant under his breath. He grinned from the shadow of his robe, "You people liked the unicorn so much? Fine then, you can all go live in his world, where you'll never trouble me or my plans again!" his voice was modulated and changed beyond identification by the terrible wind, but it still had a very solid effect, and his chanting rose again.

"You insane son-of-a-bitch! Let us out! Let us OUT!"

"Faith! Stand back!"

The Slayer did so and Ariel let-loose with an energy blast but it was absorbed, she scowled and spread her feet, leaned into it and let another fly. The barrier lit up, writhing in battling pink and green lightning.

"Good!" said Xander, "Do it again, it's working!"

"_Epistula Commutatus, Sumere-Arboria_!"

The power circle came alive with red-gold fire, it cascaded up in a glowing pillar and the green barrier dissipated in a shower of sparks. The runes within it swam then changed, indicating a new destination. The three within tried to jump free but they were frozen in place.

"Xander!" screamed Ariel, "XANDER!"

"...can't..._move_.." he muttered, veins pulsating from his forehead.

"Stop it! I shoulda let her kill you!" howled Faith, the pain was excruciating, they all twisted and convulsed.

"..._ABI_!" finished the leader and there was a mad flash and a monstrous roar. He lowered his arms and opened his eyes.

And found himself alone on the Gothic Arch with the unmoving bodies of the Initiative soldiers...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Elsewhere..._

"Transition in effect!"

"Tracking it! It's...It's different this time!"

"Different? Different how?"

"They aren't bringing something to them this time, they're sending something elsewhere."

"Even better, saves us the trouble of turnin the tables. Bloody glorious! Well, don't just sit there gawking!"

"Understood! Preparing to divert. Activate the generators."

"And...active!"

"And..._diverting_!"

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Across the infinite reaches of the Multiverse they spun, carried on wings of crimson fire. Realities, both possible and impossible, spun past them on all sides in a spinning, dizzying kaleidoscope. Faith gritted her teeth, unwilling to believe what was happening to her, what was happening to all of them.

_Am I dead? I must be dead-_

"No! You're not!" shouted Ariel rushing along beside her, and the Slayer tore her gaze from the maelstrom to gawk in amazement.

"You-You read my mind?"

_Yes! I did. It must...must be this place. Everything and anything-_

"-_it's possible in here_!" Xander finished and they looked across at him as he soared, arms outstretched as if he could control his flight.

"I don't know what the robed guy did, but no matter what's about to happen..." he slapped his hand in Ariel's, "...no matter what, we do it together."

She nodded, looked to Faith and held out her own. The Slayer stared at her for a long second, then sighed, "Whatever..." and she grasped her hand. But she gripped it tight and welcomed the contact.

Together they looked ahead and closing fast on them was a swirling vortex of beautiful, golden light. It felt warm, it felt good, it felt..._wonderful_...

They closed on it and for a long moment they all felt as if everything was going to be fine-the scarlet aura around them crackled and went dark, they were wrenched hard to the right! Faith yelled and Ariel shut her eyes, Xander yanked her to him, hauling Faith along with her. They huddled against him and he alone looked forward, toward a new vortex.

It wasn't gold, that was for sure.

It was black.

They fell through and

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

the world opened up below them in a spiraling shockwave of power!

...

...they fell...

...

...cliffs of grey stone, an endless desert of yellow sand, spurs of fractured black obsidian rising everywhere...

They landed as one, the impact tossing them in all directions.

Faith hit on her side, rolled, slammed into the side of one of the spurs head first.

Ariel somersaulted down the side of a dune and went face-first in a pool of brackish water, rolled over and conked out.

Xander smashed _through _a spur in a shattering of glass-like stone, flipped end-over-end and slammed down into the sand, cut a trench for five feet, then ground to a halt.

Nobody moved, nobody spoke.

Then Xander stood in a rush, spit out a mouthful of yellow sand, took one step, "Mother..." then pitched over, spread-eagle.

The orange sun beat down upon them...

**End of Part II...**


	15. Chapter V: Part III

_Hours later..._

Ariel awoke to the sounds of distant thunder and the cough-gasp of somebody hacking. _Wait... I think... I think that's... me..._

She sat up blinking in the blazing afternoon sunlight and finished spitting up grey liquid onto the chest of her yellow windbreaker. Balancing on her palms, she narrowed her eyes for focus and looked about her. A desert wasteland spread in all directions, dotted with tall sand dunes and towers of glossy-black rock reflecting the light as they rose up sporadically from the cracked surface.

"This...can't be good..." she whispered, then stood on rubbery knees and stepped from the small, low pool of what might be water, if a very poor imitation of it.

She hoofed forward, Calvin Klein sneakers squelching wetly on the turf, and slowly ascended a dune. Shading her eyes, she panned the region for signs of civilization. Dunes and desert spread off into infinity on three sides, and a tall cliff edge rose on the fourth. The sound of distant, regular pounding seemed to undulate up from there, her eyes narrowed thoughtfully as she tried and failed to identify the noise, then gave in and headed down the other side of the dune to investigate.

_Something tells me this isn't Mercury's reality. It's like we were almost there, we were so close, then...then..._ "What? What happened?"

"Uhhh, we got pureed in the Universe's blender?" she started and looked down, gawked at the sight of Faith rising from beside a spur of rock, cradling her blood-caked forehead.

"You made it! You made it too!" she caught her by the arm and hauled her up with her.

The Slayer stumbled, fell against her, had to steady herself on Ariel's shoulders. She fought not to throw up and managed to produce a slight grin, "Yeah, I guess I did. I guess I have you to thank-"

"Xander!" Ariel pushed her off and took off running.

Faith lurched and fell against the spur, looked round in annoyance, "I'm fine, gee, thanks for asking."

The blonde sprinted round a scattering of grey rubble and fell to her knees beside the prone body of Xander. A fist-sized black ant-like insect was plucking hairs from the back of his head, stuffing them into it's mandibles. It chittered a warning up at her.

"Beat it! Go away!" she slapped it off. It flew across the sand, hit and came up in blur of legs. It screeched at her in a high cadence, then dodged as a rock came hurtling after it.

"Take a hint, grasshopper!" it ran off and Ariel gently rolled Xander over, cradled his head in her lap.

She was brushing sand and grit from his eye and lips when Faith came limping over. She pushed her long hair back and leaned down, "Is he dead?"

"No! He's not dead. He's breathing. Well, sort of."

Faith narrowed her eyes in the heady sunlight, then saw his chest slowly rise. Then she looked back to his face, licked her dry lips, "Um...he's going to wake up eventually. So..."

Ariel glanced up at her, "So?"

"So... why don't you flip up the eye-patch?"

"What?!"

Faith shrugged, "It's been driving me crazy, I just got to know what it looks like."

"You're disgusting. That's revolting _and_ an invasion on his privacy, and-"

"-and you know you want to know too."

Ariel pursed her lips, "Yeah, I do." and she reached for it slowly.

_Creak!_ The hard black leather was levered back.

"Hmmm, doesn't look so bad." decided Faith.

"That's because his lids are shut." replied Ariel.

"Then pull it open."

"Ugh, no."

"Chicken."

"I am not. It's just-" Xander's eyes flew open.

"Muh..." he gagged, "...Windex...Windex makes it shine..."

Faith rolled her eyes, "I think he brained his damage. Hey, isn't that a hotel key in his eye-socket?"

Ariel scowled and helped him to sit. He rubbed at his face dumbly, flipped down his patch, then climbed to his feet, with more then a little help from his friends. He peered around, then closed his eye and whacked his forehead, opened it, tried again.

"Nope. I'm still here."

Faith released his shoulder and moved off, "Yeah, he's fine."

Xander blinked at the blonde holding his arm, "Um, where are we?"

"A whole other world it seems." then she smiled, "Hey, maybe this is the Land of the Blind."

He frowned in confusion, "And if it is?"

"Well if it is, then you'd be King!"

He stared at her for a long drawn-out moment. Ariel scowled, "You know, in the Land of the Blind, the one-eyed man is...oh, never mind. What, I can't make light of bad situations like you guys do?" she sighed then released his arm. But she still waited for a moment to be sure he wasn't going to fall. Xander shook his head, "That's okay, thanks. But I'm pretty sure I can take it from here."

"That's good, Harris, 'cause I wasn't about to carry you." advised Faith from the top of a dune.

"What a friggin coincidence, Faith, because I feel the same way."

She folded arms across her chest and looked at the both of them, "Well... what now?"

He shrugged, "You got me. Taking a trip to another dimension wasn't exactly on my Dayplanner for today."

Her eyes lit-up and she jogged back down to join them again, "Hey! Dayplanner! The thing-a-ma-bob, the Initiative thing!"

Ariel nodded, "Right! Whats it say? Maybe it can help."

Xander dug in his jacket and pulled the black-and-chrome device from his inside pocket. Before turning it on, he searched all over it, eye narrowed.

"What? What are you looking for?"

"A red digital read-out, counting backwards toward an escape vortex."

"Huh?" Faith looked to Ariel.

She rolled her eyes and hissed dramatically, "Sl-iiiii-ders."

"Double-huh?"

"What, you never watched? Hello, it was on for like five years. And that Jerry O'Connell," Ariel purred, "oh yeah, he can find my gateway any day of the week."

The scanner lit-up and began to bleep dramatically. They all leaned in and peered at the tiny screen. Letters, numbers and odd symbols raced in all directions and it blinked brightly. Then it fizzled, sparked, and went dead. Xander scowled and pounded on the keys, but got nothing.

"Damn, stupid machine!"

"Yep." observed Ariel sadly, "We're definitely doing Sliders." she turned away and walked off. She left Xander and Faith's muttering behind her and headed farther into the desert. _We may be going to die of thirst, but at least I can go out saying I've travelled interdimensionally, even if it wasn't by choice..._

She didn't really hang-out in demonic circles, but being half-Succubus gave her access to places not trod by human feet, so she'd heard a few things. Like that the theory of infinite realities was real, and a lot of them were horrible hell dimensions, not fun for mortals to holiday in, to say the least.

_Yow, remember those slides Giselle showed us of her and Barry's honeymoon to Pylea?_ She looked about her for a sign that wasn't where she was. _That would be a major downer, 'cause I look human and Pylea is definitely not a good place for a human to be_--her left foot came down on something solid, so she stopped.

"Maybe it needs it's batteries changed." suggested Faith as Xander whacked at the side of the scanner, "My CD player's rechargeable ones are always running out too fast, I've been meaning to go to the 'Shack and pick some new ones up."

Xander shook the device by his ear, listened for a rattle, "Good idea. When we get back we'll go and look for some triple-A's for this too. Of course, until then, we're still lost interdimensionally, so-"

"You don't have to be a dork about it, I ain't stupid, I know that."

He held the Initiative device out to her, "Well, if you're so smart, make it work then."

Her eyes flashed, "Maybe it'll work if I ram it up your-"

"Hey guys! You gotta see this!"

They looked round to see Ariel crouched ten meters away, pulling at something in the dirt. Then their eyes bugged as she straightened up, pulling a green highway sign up with her. They took off at a jog toward her. By the time they arrived, she'd brushed the grime from it's surface to reveal white-lettered English text.

"Topeka - One Mile East, Junction City - Eighty Miles West." read Xander, then he looked left and right, made out patches of cracked grey pavement peaking up through the desert floor, stretching off both directions into the distance, "Wait, I know this one, it's Interstate-70. We're in Kansas."

"I thought the line was: we're _not_ in Kansas anymore." quipped Ariel.

Xander sighed and Faith frowned. Ariel puffed out a breath, "Wow, tough crowd."

Faith's brow crinkled, "So, not only did we get jacked to another dimension, we were also jetted half-way across the country in less then ten seconds."

"Not just another dimension," Ariel said in awe, "a parallel one."

The Slayer cocked her head, "A parrot-what?"

"Another version of our world, but with some differences." Xander's gaze turned inward and he began to think rapidly.

"Differences?" Faith didn't like that, not at all, "Different how?"

"Well for one," Ariel spread her hands and gestured at the bleak region about them, "in this dimension, Kansas is an abandoned nuclear wasteland."

"Nuclear?" her eyes went wide, "As in radiation that makes your parts rot and fall off?"

"I doubt it." Xander pulled out the scanner again, "This thing auto-scans for radiation, and it would have alerted us before it burned out."

"How do you know? It's broken, 'member?"

"Yeah, well, it wasn't when we arrived, okay? It worked for a few seconds when I turned it on."

Faith rolled her eyes, "Yeah, worked _real_ well."

_Yeesh, there they go again..._ Ariel turned her back on them and headed for the cliff.

"And it _will_ work again, don't be so negative. I just have to find the problem." Xander turned the device over in his hands, then spotted a small crack in it's casing. He peered through it and sighed, "Great, I can see damage. I'll need a micro-toolkit to repair it, at the very least."

"Hey look," said Faith, "there's a wrench over there on that boulder."

"What? There is?" he looked up hopefully.

"No! There's not!" she ripped the device from his fingers, made to throw it, "This isn't going to do us any good! We're screwed, Harris, we're royally screwed! And it's all your fault!"

"Me?! How the hell is this my fault?!" he grabbed the scanner back and returned it to his jacket, "It was that robed guy and his circle of power. _He_ did it!"

"And I said we should leave!" she poked him in the chest hard, "That the wind was too much, I told you it was too dangerous!"

"But we had to help Ariel!"

"No we _didn't_. We ended up helping the asswipe who _sent_ us here! If we'd left well-enough alone Ariel would have Kentucky-fried his robe-wearing ass and we'd be back at the Amsterdam Court Hotel, ordering up a complimentary continental breakfast, with extra strawberries and whip cream! But noooooooo! Mr. 'I've got a hard-on for the Succubus' had to play Superman and rush to Lois Lane's rescue!"

"I do _not_ have a--" he glared, "And is that what you think we should have done? Let Ariel kill that guy? Just so we could have got home in time for Conan O'Brien? Is that your answer for everything, Faith? Just kill'em and let God sort'em out?"

"I-"

"Well no! I saw what happened when _you_ did that four years ago in Sunnydale, and I'll be _dammed_ if I'm going to let it happen to Ariel, you understand!"

"I...I..."

He leaned in and glowered, "Well? What, you gonna do? Hop on my chest again and try to strangle me? Why not? No Angel around this time to plow you over the head with a shovel, is there? So do it!"

Faith turned away, head down.

"When Wesley broke you out of prison, it wasn't because he felt you had learned your lesson. No, it wasn't his call to make. He had no choice, don't forget. And neither did Willow when she brought you home with her to Sunnydale. We were fighting a war with the First and getting pulverized. We needed everybody and anybody we could get, or the world wasn't going to make it. We accepted you back into our ranks because there was no other option at the time."

"So then why didn't you put me back?" she asked hoarsely.

He stared at the back of her head, "What?"

She turned slowly back, stared at him, eyes glistening, "Why didn't you put me back in jail? When it was all over, and I'd saved Angel, and helped you stop the First, and I was no longer needed. Why didn't you put me back in jail? It's not like there wasn't plenty of Slayers kicking around to overpower me. Why?"

"Because you're our _friend_." he said slowly, "...because you're _my_ friend."

"What?! What the hell kind of answer is that?!"

"The only one we--I have." he exhaled, the angry moment past, "Buffy, Will and I discussed it. Giles too-"

"Oh, fan-damn-tastic, the Super Friends got together to pass judgment over Boston's favorite gal, whata freakin surprise!"

"Give us a break, Faith, you tried to _kill_ Buffy, you kidnaped Will at knife-point, and you assaulted _me_. I think we earned the right to have a say."

She opened her mouth, then closed it without saying anything. Her shoulders twitched, "...okay...and?"

"And...and we decided that you'd earned another shot. Life's short, and everybody deserves a second chance."

"Oh, give me a friggin break, my life aint an After School Special, I have the right to make a choice on my own-"

"-and aligning yourself with the Mayor, stealing Buffy's body, torturing Wesley in LA, these are all choices you made?"

"I...that was the past..." her eyes darkened, she bit her lip, "that's not me anymore-"

"Exactly, you'd earned another chance, and so we gave it to you. We're the only ones who could. That's why Giles and Willow wiped your criminal record clean."

"You...he... What?!"

Xander nodded, smiled, "I'd been meaning to tell you, I got the confirmation last week. You're clean, Faith."

"What the...what are you talking about?" _He can't be serious_, she thought, unwilling to let herself believe it, _He's gotta be lying_.

"When Giles took control of what was left of the Watchers Council, he pulled some strings. It's amazing the power the Council has, it's got it's fingers in every cookie jar. And Willow cracked out her laptop and cleaned up all the smaller details with some magic-assisted hacking."

"No..."

"Yes. You've got _carte blanche_ now. You can even apply for a passport or a drivers license. And the only hard evidence got swallowed up by the Hellmouth. So you're as recordless as I am." he looked around darkly, "As much as that matters right now."

Ariel was waving at him from the edge of the cliff and he turned away, set off to join her. Faith stayed behind, staring off across the desert, seeing nothing. She felt numb. Despite the heat she actually felt a chill creeping up her spine._ So that's it? I'm free? No more looking over my shoulder, no more wondering when the Scoobies were going to remember what I've done and drop on me like a ton of happy-go-lucky bricks. It's...over... And I can start fresh. Hell, I already have_-

"Faith!" shouted Xander from the cliff, "Faith, get over here! You've got to see this!"

She rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand and swallowed hard, got control of herself. She hooked the long black locks of hair back over her ears and dusted her jean-jacket off, then headed forward, filled with a new sense of strength, a new-found purpose in life. _This time I'm going to do it right, I'm gonna make a difference, gonna not kill anybody. Well, not unless they-_

"...piss...me...off..." she finished out loud as she came to a jarring halt and beheld what they beheld.

"Guh..." said Xander.

"I...wow..." said Ariel.

"Wow is the word..." said Faith.

Far below them, nearly half a kilometer down and more then five klicks out from the base of the cliff face, an army of orange and silver marched across the endless desert. But it wasn't an army of men. It was an army of machines. At least a hundred robots across and stretching back in a twisting river of polished chrome and past the setting sun, they must have numbered in the tens of thousands.

The three could only stare, for the longest time. Then the sound of shrieking jets sounded high above them and as one their gazes lanced skyward to see a box-like transport ship soaring down towards them. The trio spun about and watched in shock as it powered down in a blast of sand and wind, a wide grill of glowing blue light set into it's underside, then it landed with a metallic crunch and was still.

Amber sunlight glinted off it's sloped nose and danced on a tinted canopy. Heat greater then the desert's emanated off of it and broiled the air around it's base. Then, with a hiss of hydraulics, a door slid back on the side facing them. From inside a horde of tall yellow-skinned finned demons in chromed armor poured out, forming up in a tight line, space-age rifles gripped tightly two-handed and pointed directly at them.

Faith and Ariel pressed against Xander, the Succubus on purpose, the Slayer without realizing it. With a hum, green laser crosshairs materialized on their chests and the demon soldiers reached for triggers.

"Um...we come in peace?" Xander offered, hope dwindling fast.

"What a bloody coincidence," spoke a very familiar voice behind the horde of demons, "so do _we_. Well, we don't actually, but wouldn't it be a lark if we did."

And he pushed through his 'men' to stand before them grinning, hands on his hips, clad in a glistening chrome flackvest with a swirling grey leather duster covering it all.

"Holy..._crap_..." breathed Faith.

Ariel looked back and forth between them in confusion, "What? You know him? Who is he?"

Xander stared with his good eye and it slowly narrowed, as inside he was rapidly calculating a theory as to what the heck was going on. And he didn't like the results. Not in the least.

"His name...his name is Spike..."

"And our name is mud." Faith said morosely, "Maybe now I should say something about not being in Kansas, or somethin? It didn't work for Ariel before, but now it seems sorta appropriate."

"Go ahead." Xander replied darkly, "It's not like this could get any worse."

Ariel blanched and clutched at his wrist, "Oh no, don't say that. Nothing good ever came out of somebody saying that, don't you know how things work? Trust me, no matter how bad things get, they can always get-" a sound like electric thunder echoed across the sky overhead and the line of demon soldiers lowered their weapons and looked skyward in unison. Spike did as well.

"-worse..." Ariel finished and they looked up.

With a rising hum of unseen energies, a huge light exploded into view high above, just below cloud-level. In a twisting of power, a three dimensional face sprang into view in full color, it must have been a mile across and appeared from the shoulders up.

"Oh, just kill me now..." moaned Xander softly.

"You know this guy too?" asked Ariel and she glanced at Faith. She shook her head, she didn't know it this time.

Half his face was human, the other half was demon-green and shelled in chromed metal like a cyborg. When he spoke, it boomed across the landscape and left no doubt that the entire planet was bearing witness to him. Down below, the endless army had halted to observe as well.

"BEFORE MY COMING, ALL WAS CHAOS..."

He paused for a moment and Xander said, "His name was--is Adam. And if this is his world, then..."

"Then?" asked Faith.

"Then...then I don't know..."

"THE WORLD WAS RAW AND UNDISCIPLINED..." boomed the high-hovering monolith, "THE WORLD WAS RULED BY THE MEEK, THE UNJUST, THE UNWORTHY...THE WORLD WAS ON A DIRECT PATH TO DESTRUCTION..."

"I just don't know..."

"AND THEN I CAME..."

**To be continued...**

**End of Chapter V...**


	16. Chapter VI: Part I

**SLAYERS: THREE OF A KIND  
**

**Chapter VI - Lost in the Shuffle**

_Beneath the murky and endless streets of New York City..._

With a rumble of hydraulics, the platform lift dropped from the high ceiling and descended into the depths of the canyon-like Operations Hanger.

Five levels high and walled in thick sheets of foot-thick lead, it stretched for nearly the length of a football field. The industrial elevator clanked to a halt on the floor and the pair of boxy black Humvees resting upon it surged forward and joined a waiting line of twenty more duplicate vehicles. The doors opened and the weary men of _Team Brooklyn _exited, lead by their leader, who was as always shrouded deep within the dark folds of a wool cloak.

They marched past the row of glistening ebony Westland Apache helicopters, each like a mechanical hornet ready to take angry flight at any moment. Ahead lay the door to the inner base structure, and debriefing. A tall woman in a grey labcoat stood fidgeting by the heavy blast door, a silver clipboard pressed to her flat chest. The cloaked leader halted before her.

Her eyes narrowed at the sight of the bloody and bruised Lt. Peyton as he limped by, then returned to her master, "I take it Phase Two did not proceed as planned, sir."

"You would take it correctly." the cloaked man muttered and his shoulders slumped forlornly, "Not due to any fault of our own though."

"Interference?"

The hood nodded, "And that was the last of our blood supply. Now the operation will have to wait until a new supply can be collected."

She leaned forward earnestly, "May I ask, was it Slayer-002 who interfered?"

"And her cohorts, yes."

She pursed her lips and typed something into her digital clipboard, "Did you terminate her?"

He chuckled darkly, "In a way. She and her associates will not trouble us again, that's for certain." he moved to go, then hesitated, turned back to her, "Why? This should not concern you, Lieutenant."

"It is a pity if you did do away with the girl, because..." and she turned over the board, held it out.

He took it and studied the genetic sequence displayed there on the flat crystal display. A DNA strand rotated silently, surrounded by a hemochelogical breakdown grid.

"Notice markers 7A and 19K-"

"Yes! I see them, I'm not _blind_." he typed a command and a stream of runes materialized about the graphic, sunk into it and glowed white, "Unbelievable..."

"Yes, I know."

He looked up at her sharply, "Why was this not detected before?"

"The analysis from the blood sample taken from her during her incarceration here was only just completed. But this girl...Faith, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"First or last name?"

"I don't know." he replied, "Every effort to track down her past history has met with a brick wall."

"Sir, that's impossible. We are the Initiative. Nobody can hide from us."

"Well, she appears to be doing so." he glanced back at the clipboard, watched Faith's head slowly rotate back and forth, "How is it that her blood is so much more potent then the rest?"

"Another unknown variable, sir." she cocked her head to the side, "It is regrettable she is no longer within our grasp. It would make things so much easier."

For a long moment he considered a recovery plan, then discarded it as nearly impossible, tossed the board back to his subordinate, "Yes, it would make the operation infinitely easier, but it's far too late now. She is lost to us." he headed through the door with a swish of his cloak, "I guess we'll just have to make do with some garden-variety Slayers, now won't we."

"Any chance of her or her companions returning?" she asked to his retreating back.

"Not where _I_ sent them..."

He vanished into the depths of the complex, laughing darkly under his breath...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Not here, but there, in the remains of what used to be Kansas..._

In Faith's short time as a Slayer, and really, it had been less then six years since she'd been Chosen (though she preffered a different word, like Screwed), she'd found herself in several of what she'd call hopeless situations. Like when her first Watcher Marion had been slaughtered by the vampire Kakistos. And when the lava demon known as the Beast had beaten her to a near bloody pulp while Angelus stood by and laughed. And the time when she'd been ambushed by the First and found herself face-to-face with a bomb. But amazingly Faith was still breathing and all her fingers and toes were so far intact, so up until right now she'd wondered if there was _nothing_ she couldn't overcome.

Up until right now...

"AND THEN I CAME..."

The words of the cyborg who ruled this bizarre parallel world reverberated across the desert and shook the cliff the Slayer was standing on, Xander on her left, Ariel on her right. She looked down and watched bits of shale break loose and drop down toward the valley floor below, followed by a rain of gravel. The long rock face was pocked and stripped all over, so most likely this wasn't the first time Adam had made this speech.

"AND THE BALANCE WAS RESTORED, EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE FOUND THEIR PLACE..."

"Jeez, he makes this everyday, doesn't he." Faith declared in a near whisper.

"He was always one for oration." Xander remarked, then looked down and across the plain to where the distant robotic army had halted five kilometers away, and were obviously doing what they were: watching in awe. _I hope they're enjoying it more then I am..._

"But I don't get it, how do you know him? And that guy Spike?" Ariel shivered at the rapidly descending temperature.

"Let's just say I'm pretty sure I know where we are."

"AND THE CHAOS WAS GONE, AND IN IT'S PLACE... THERE WAS ORDER..."

"And that helps us...how?" Faith stared at him.

He shrugged and zipped up his coat, covering the Heckler-and-Koch carbine hanging under it. Faith cocked an eyebrow at this, "What, we just gonna surrender? No way, not my bag, Harris."

As Adam's global litany continued, he shook his head firmly, looked to them both, "No. Too many of them and plus they have an armored transport thing and Spike."

"I don't give a crap-"

"No." his tone was like stone and Ariel suddenly felt the warmth of hope rising up within her. _He's got a plan, we're going to get through this and we're going to get home!_

Faith was not sharing her optimism yet, "Who made you Captain of this pirate ship? Right, nobody. So seein as I'm packin the biggest punch, then I call the shots, ya get?"

"No." Xander said it again, even quieter and her eyes looked about to pop out of her head.

Faith looked back-and-forth, then back to him, eyes blazing like a forge, "Boy, don't make me have to toss you off this cliff-"

And without hesitation he caught her shoulder and pushed her closer to the edge. Her arms pinwheeled for a second, then she caught onto him and steadied, "Have you been smokin _crack_? I aughta-"

"You _aughta_ calm your tight ass down, girl, and do what he says." Ariel broke in, her eyes a steel that Faith's forge couldn't hope to melt, "Xander is calling the shots here."

"Wha-says _who_?"

"He does. Haven't you been noticing? So lose the Attica-tude and fall in line."

Faith gawked at her for a long second, then glanced at Xander, whose expression was solemn and controlled, then she puffed out a breath and was silent.

"...Anyway." Xander said at last, "Okay, heres how we play it: we're all just powerless humans who are confused and scared-"

"Shouldn't be too hard for you." Faith muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nuthin."

"Yeah, I thought it was. Right, we play opossum and then when I'm convinced they think we're no threat, I'll give the word and we make a break for it."

"Wow, brilliant plan, Hannibal. But shouldn't we break Murdock out of the sanitarium first?"

He scowled, though he liked the reference, "Look-"

But Ariel caught his hand, "Shhh, Zardoz has finished talking."

Xander glanced upwards and indeed, the holographic head of Adam had vanished, the daily affirmation was over. There was a crunch of boots on gravel behind them and he caught the girls by the wrists, hissed under his breath, "Remember, play it cool."

The footsteps stopped.

The three slowly turned around. Spike stood there, chrome vest glinting in the sun, "Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt your little pow-wow there."

"Oh, you didn't." said Ariel with a friendly smile, "But thank-you for being so considerate of our feelings."

"I-" he cocked his head, then frowned, "Right. Okay, you're new here so I'll let it go this time, but next time the big man appears in the high-skies, you don't say a word, just watch and listen."

"And if we don't?" asked Faith innocently, and Xander fought not to groan.

The platinum-haired vampire moved in front of her and grinned, "Well, sure, you _can_ ignore him if you like, it's your choice of course, we're a democratic republic round here, but..." and his hand blurred up and caught her by the throat, wrenched her into the air and shoved her forward, over the edge. She dangled in his grip, clawing at his hand as her feet kicked air.

"...but then we'd have to kill you."

"Okay!" shouted Xander, catching his arm, "She understands! She was only joking, really!"

Spike frowned, "Joking? Hmmm, that's too bad, there's no joking allowed here." and he let go.

Without a sound, Faith vanished.

Ariel screamed and made to jump after her, Spike swung round and decked her across the jaw, sending her flying backwards. She crashed into the arms of the demon soldiers and slumped, knocked out cold. Xander stared at her in shock, then looked down the cliff for any sign of Faith. Spike caught his arm in a vise-like grip and hauled him close.

"Now that I've made it abundantly clear who's in charge here, mate, howsabout you hand over that pop-gun you got concealed under your coat?" his face vamped and he tongued his fangs with a grin, "It ain't a request..."

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_An hour later, at the same location..._

Atop the now empty cliff, the lightly flowing air suddenly cycled up to squall speeds, whipping about in a contained space of three meters. Sand and grit were expelled in a spray as black carnic energies sprang into being and crimson lightning crawled across a two meter-high cylinder of vacuum. With a screaming cadence of sound, three figures materialized, then the lightshow was gone and air instantly rushed back in to fill the gap.

Two women and a man in a triangular formation, back-to-back-to-back, each carried a different weapon which they quickly leveled about them. After a long moment they lowered them and the one in charge stepped to the edge of the cliff, raised a pair of electronic binoculars and zoomed in on the retreating line of troops marching into the horizon.

"It looks to be the Fourth Battalion." she remarked solemnly.

"Off to police the Memphis mining lines, I'd wager. They'll be supplementing the Tennessee Garrison, which suggests the Underground has been active in that area." remarked the man, his name was Solomon, as he slung his plasma rifle and headed forward to examine a blackened oval burned into the dirt ten meters in from the edge.

He dug at it with the toe of his boot, sniffed the air, "A transport put down here not too long ago. They beat us here, obviously." He was dressed in blue dungaree trousers and heavy work boots, a camo jacket hung low over a web-belt clipped with equipment. He had a dark crewcut and pale grey eyes, his skin rough and scarred, though he didn't look to be older then twenty, "How do you think that is? I thought the point of employing a Seer was to get the jump on Adam."

"Um, actually," piped up the second woman timidly, "it wasn't the Seer, it was me."

He looked round at her, "You?"

She nodded, "I was meditating with the Cable and felt the disturbance of a temporal fold."

Solomon frowned, "I guess they picked up on it too."

The leader turned from the cliff and fingered her sword's hilt absently, "Their tracking stations must be better then we originally thaught."

"Obviously."

She looked to the third member of the party, who leaned against her tall staff, attempting to focus her breathing, "So...we come all dis way, use much of your power, all for nuthing."

"I...um, guess..." she frowned, eyes narrowing thoughtfully, "Wait..."

"Yes?"

"I...I think there's still somebody-" with a rush of air, a dark-haired woman sprang up from below the overhang, spun in midair and landed behind the leader. In a blur she had the woman's short-sword and reversed it, pressed the tip to her throat, caught her about the waist in a tight grip, "No fast moves, or she's breathin through a new oxy-hole, capiche?" Faith breathed hard, a cruel splash of dried blood glistening on her forehead.

Solomon and the witch gaped at this dirt-stained newcomer, but recovered fast. Her staff and his energy rifle leveled swung to the ready, and both weapons hummed dangerously.

Faith glared, "I thought I said no fast moves. What are you, all inbred and stupid in this dimension? I mean, come on! Girl with a sword here."

"You are makin a grave error." her hostage said, her voice thick with a heavy accent.

"Yo, Queen Latifah, be shuttin it, ya hear?" and she jabbed her neck for emphasis.

And suddenly the woman whirled in her grip, slapped palms against Faith and broke her hold, sending her stumbling back toward the edge. Faith teetered for a long moment, _dammit, not again!_, then with a supreme effort steadied herself. She exhaled in relief, whipped the sword back and forth in warning, "Nice moves, but I ain't playin Cliffhanger for a second time. It took me the better part of an hour to free-climb back up here, after getting tossed half-way down."

"Return my weapon and you will not be harmed."

"Make me believe it."

The dark-skinned woman folded arms across her chest and stared her down, "Do you not recognize me?"

Faith shrugged, "Nope, but I'm not really from around here, ya see."

She frowned, "My face decorates half the Extermination Orders on this continent. You are human, are you not?"

"Accordin to Blue Cross, yeah, more or less."

"Then you should know the name Kendra. And what it means."

Faith's hold on the sword wavered as all her extremities went suddenly numb. A cold fist gripped her gut and she looked the Caribbean woman up and down. _No... Not possible..._

"You-You're lying-"

"No, she's not." said the man with the rifle and he lowered it, slung it back over his shoulder, "No tricks, she's the Slayer."

"No...but...but you're..._dead_."

"I am?"

"She is?" asked the fair-haired woman with the tall metallic staff, then she studied Faith's expression carefully, gaze prying deep, "You're telling the truth, at least from your perspective, I can tell. Who are you, where did you come from?" she looked to the man beside her, "Solomon, that was more then just a powerful teleportaion spell the Cable detected. I don't think she's from here."

"Not from here? What, like this country?"

"No. I mean, um, not from this world."

"Huh? What, she's an alien?"

_Another version of our world, but with some differences._ Xander's words from an hour ago bubbled up in the Bostonian's mind and she fought to regain her composure. _Holy...it's actually_ her, _she's the one..._

"The one who came before me."

The sword fell from Faith's grip and her shoulders slumped. She swallowed hard, then pushed the confused feelings aside, there were much more important issues at stake here, like

"-Xander and Ariel. He took them."

"Who took who?" demanded Kendra.

"My friends, they were taken by a vampire, he tossed me off the cliff. His name was-"

"-Spike." finished the third woman, her eyes darting back and forth, "I th-thought I felt his presence."

Kendra reached down and caught up her sword, turned round to face her, "If he gets back to the Fortress, then they most likely will be lost. I need to get to them before that. You know the signature of Spike's transport, do you not?"

She nodded reluctantly, "But...no, it's too s-soon. I'm not ready. And a moving target?" she paled, "What if I make a mistake sending you there?"

"You won't. Because you're coming with me."

"What? I-I am?"

The Slayer nodded, "You know you can do it." she smiled, "You can do anything."

The woman hesitated for a long second, then nodded, with slightly more confidence.

Faith scowled, "What are you talking about? Where are you going?"

Kendra glanced at her, "To get your friends. We will tell them you are well, if we find them still alive." then she looked to Solomon, "Get her back to Silver City. You'll have to take-"

"Yeah, I know." he moved forward and caught Faith's arm, "Come on, let's go."

"Go? Go where?"

"You'll see. Trust me." he dragged her forward, past the two women.

She made to resist, "No, I'm going after my friends!"

"No need, the Slayer will get them back, then meet us back home."

Faith yanked free and turned about, "Frig _that_, I'm going-" but there was a rush of air and a flash of black energies and they were gone, "-with them." she frowned, "Or maybe not..."

_Slayer?_ she puffed out an annoyed breath, _I'm the Slayer, not that jumped up, arrogant control freak. Actually, I kind of liked her..._

"Let's go, before a Dark Legion spy satellite picks us up." Solomon headed off and she reluctantly followed after him. They managed nearly ten steps between them before a huge roar blasted into being far behind them.

"What was th-" Faith started to turn back, but Solomon tackled her, sending them both to the ground. She flipped over and made to toss him off her, "What the _hell_ is wrong with you?"

"STAY DOWN!" he shouted at her, from behind clenched lids, "And shut your eyes!"

"Wha-"

"DO IT!" and he slapped his hands over her face and buried his own head in the dirt.

And then the shockwave reached them and the world collapsed into a black hurricane...

**End of Part I...**


	17. Chapter VI: Part II

_Far away..._

Light blazed into the narrow confines of the transport's holding cell and Xander looked up from his attempt to pry a ventilation grate off the back wall to see a pair of yellow-skinned demon soldiers glowering down at him.

The one-eyed would-be warrior grinned sheepishly, "Heh, just trying to get some fresh air. You know how it is on these flights, it gets so recycled and stale-" they leaned in and yanked him out bodily.

He was whipped about in their grip and dragged forward between them, out of the now landed transport. A massive docking bay like something out of _Return of the Jedi_ loomed in all directions; rows of more boxy grey transport ships, ribbed cargo boxes traveling on six-wheeled forklifts, dull-faced humans in shapeless green overalls working everywhere, supervised by a spread-out battalion of the silver-armored finned demons. They patrolled the deck and perched sentry on a series of inter-weaving catwalks hung from the domed ceiling.

"Yowzers, Uncle Gadget, we're in real trouble now." he muttered, then they tossed him forward, he crashed down on all fours on the deck and gasped as pain bit through his elbows and knees.

Spike strode past him and dumped a transparent bag of his and Ariel's possessions into the arms of a burly purple-shelled demon clad in black leather straps, "Got two for ya, Movax, take'em down to Detention."

Ariel's limp body went past on the shoulder of one of the soldiers. Xander glared after the creature as he struggled to his feet, he was carrying the blonde like a sack of flour, and he wanted to rip the thing's arms off. Anger overcame his caution and he made to charge, but Movax slammed a hand the size of a hubcap down onto his shoulder and yanked him back. Before the human could react, a pair of over-sized manacles were locked over his wrists. Ruby indicators pulsed and they hummed, shrunk to a tight fit. He slammed Xander in the back, sending him reeling forward, "Move! Disobey and I'll dig out yer other eye!"

"THE ONE wants them alive until he has a chance to interrogate them personally." advised Spike behind him, with an air of indifference, "So don't break'em in too hard, you get me?"

Movax hustled his prisoner into an elevator, waved his understanding over his shoulder, "Right, whatever. They'll be able to talk, not a problem. Able to do anything else? Well, no promises."

The last thing Xander saw before the doors slid shut was the opposite end of the Mission Bay. It was open-ended and beyond lay only blue sky and clouds. For the first time he noticed a steady vibration reverberating through the deck. _What IS this place, anyway? _He glanced at Ariel's limp face and swallowed hard, tried to think of a plan of escape, but things looked very grim.

The lift-cage, with a screeching of gears, shot upwards through the massive, city-sized bulk of the Flying Fortress, as it slowly rotated, more then a kilometer above the blighted soil of Forth Worth, Texas...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Back in the transport..._

The engine core was softly creaking as it cooled, when to it's left the air suddenly erupted with dark energies. Lightning crackled and two women materialized, weapons in hand and ready. They once again moved back-to-back, but after a minute of nothing jumping out at them they lowered their guard. A look was exchanged, they moved silently forward. A minute later and they were in the empty cockpit, looking out through the tinted canopy at the controlled chaos of the Mission Bay.

"We're too late." the witch said quietly.

"Maybe not." Kendra typed a command into the ship's communication link-up and brought up a schematic, "They will take them to the Detention Deck, that is for certain. Adam cannot be here yet, though he may be en-route."

Her partner stared at the demons milling though the Bay, "So, what now? Do we do the Star Wars thing and lure a pair of them in here, knock them out, then make our way in their armor?"

"No. Dat would be foolish."

"Good, because we d-don't have a Wookie."

Kendra turned to another panel and entered a code, "What is a Wookie?"

"Um...think Cookie Monster with a crossbow, and less of an attitude."

The Slayer stared at her silently, eyes hardening. She sighed, "Oh, just ignore my prattling."

"I will endeavor to."

"So, then whats the plan?"

"This." and with a hiss a floor hatch slid back, revealing the transport's landing legs below them.

She looked down and saw a grill set into the floor, then looked back to Kendra and grinned, "Into the ventilation shafts?" Kendra nodded, she smiled slightly, "Okay, I like it."

"I taught you might." and the Caribbean warrior stepped off the transport's deck, vanished downwards...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

A strong northeast wind began to pluck at the desert sands atop the Kansas cliff, then it cut across it, moving fast inland. As it drove across a low dune of grey ash, it scattered the surface to reveal a face. Faith coughed, spitting out a mouthful of grit, then sat up, her brown eyes streaming. She rubbed at her nose and dislodged ashes from her narrow nostrils, then looked around, fighting not to retch.

"...h-hello?" she coughed again, then stood slowly, sending a river of grey streaming off her back and sides. _What was his name? Solomon, right. Jeez, I have_ got _to get off this cliff..._

"Solomon? Hey, guy, you still recyclin oxy, or are you pushin daisies?"

Another heap convulsed, then he sat up in a spray of grey.

"Uhhhh..." then he gagged out ash like she had done. He looked around dumbly for a long moment, then his grey eyes focused, "...we made it...cool..."

She helped him to his feet, then reached back down for his dropped rifle, "I'm really getting tired of askin things, but what was that?"

When she straightened up, he pointed out to the plain and she turned round. And stared. Four kilometers away, a twisting tower of greasy smoke, easily a klick wide, twisted up into the clouds. All about it's base twisted and blackened metal was strewn, like a junk yard.

"That army of robots-"

"Demon cyborgs. Each ten meters high and armed like a weapons platform."

"But how?"

"Low-yield neutronic ballistic missile. One of the endless advances we have Adam to thank for." and he frowned sadly.

Faith brushed ash from her face, her expression one of deepening confusion, "What, he nuked his own cadre?"

"Not nuclear, neutronic."

"What, like the just-friends, no sex thing?" _Death would be preferable..._

He chuckled wryly, "No, that's platonic. Neutronic means it just vaporizes people and demons, burns metal and plastic a bit."

"Adam did that, why? Doesn't seem like a Sun-Zu thing ta do, dontcha think?"

"It wasn't him. It was the Underground."

"What, you guys?" she frowned, he and the other two had a real rebel vibe to them, in her opinion.

But Solomom shook his head, "No, there's another group. Nothing like us. They-" and his eyes widened, "Crap..."

She followed his gaze upwards and to the east, where a pair of dots were rapidly expanding. _Oh jeez, more of the torpedoes!_

He spun on his heel and took off, she wasn't far behind him...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

"Have you heard? THE ONE is coming." hiss-clicked the finned demon in the lead.

The other three members of the G-Level sentry detail perked up at that, as they rounded the next bend in the long corridor. G was at the center of the Fortress, and was the largest of the decks; deep and labyrinth-like, made up of a myriad of twists and turns. They trooped through a narrow section of passage, then exited into a circular nexus of tunnels. And halted in a rush.

A lone human female stood before them, fair of skin with long braided blonde hair. She wore a patchwork longcoat of tanned leather and was leaning on a tall black staff. She paled at the sight of the fearsome soldiers.

Four rifles snapped up and hummed to dangerous life, "Don't move!" shouted the point-demon, "How did you get in here?"

She bit her bottom lip and only smiled meekly, gave no answer. The leader stepped forward threateningly, "I asked you a question, human! Answer me or I'll burn off your legs! What are you doing here?"

"Um, distracting you."

The fins on his head twitched, "Distracting us? From what?"

"Me." and Kendra dropped from the overhead ventilation shaft, silver sword whipping round two-handed. She landed bent to the side and the two middle soldier's heads fell from their shoulders. She straightened up, sallow ichor dripping from her blade, "Did it work?"

"The Slayer!" shouted the leader, whipping his rifle round toward her, "Kill-" PHWAM! his chestplate burst outwards in a spray of organs and fluid, he teetered and pitched over, revealing the witch behind him, glowing staff-head pointed where he'd just been.

The remaining pair were backing up fast, the left one fumbling with his radio headset. Kendra snarled and charged them, weaving around the pair of shots the right one managed to get off, and drove her sword up and impaled the left one through the face. He howled and jerked, dropped his gun. She finished her momentum by kicking off and swinging on her jammed in blade, rotating on the dropping demon, and slammed her heels into the chest of his partner. He crashed backwards, she was corkscrewing through the air now, sword left behind, and landed to his left.

"I'll take that." and she tore the code card from round his neck, then chopped the rifle from his grip, spun to the side and delivered a brutal elbow to his neck. He grunted and swung a punch for her, she blocked it evenly, ducked another blow, came up and head-butted him. He snarled, she returned it in kind, then swung up with both fists-PHWAM! he no longer had a head, just a smoking stump of a neck.

Kendra froze, then lowered her ready hands, turned back, her lips pursing in irritation, "I had him. You could have hit _me_."

"Sorry. I was just trying to help."

"Next time don't." she held up the silver card, "We have what we need, let's go."

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

"So, you think you know where we are? How could you?"

He paced back-and-forth before the utilitarian-grey cell's only bunk, then halted for a moment and stared down at her where she lay, propped up by the pillow and blanket. Ariel had woken up ten minutes earlier and had nearly blasted him with her Succubusil powers before realizing with immense relief that it was Xander leaning over her. She had never been happier to see anybody in her entire life.

_I half expected it would be that monster Spike,_ she shivered involuntarily at the thought. She'd encountered many vampires during her short twenty-two years and had defeated several in combat, but there was just something off about this cockney blonde one that unnerved her to the core. _ It's like cruelty is more then just a game to him, it's what he lives and breaths. He reminds me of...of..._

_...of Mother..._

"Because I think I'm responsible for this place." Xander replied at last.

"Triple-huh?"

He leaned against the wall beside the barred gap and stuffed hands in the pockets of his jeans, "It's a long, very strange story."

"It would have to be. But I'll take the Coles Notes version, if you don't mind."

"I was dating this girl in the last year of highschool, and kind of cheated on her-"

Her eyes narrowed, "Kind of?" she shifted into a sitting position, "You either did or you didn't."

"I-" he chewed his bottom lip for a second, "Okay, I cheated on her, but it was a complex situation-"

"Aren't they always." she said sarcastically.

"I'm thinking half-demons who seduce men so they can siphon off their sexual energies shouldn't lecture on infidelity."

"That's a low blow, Xander."

"I'm just saying. Hey, can I tell this joint or what? I thought you wanted the short, not the long, of it."

She shrugged and sat back against the wall, said nothing more, but still looked disappointed in him. And for some reason it bothered him more then it should. He looked away from her and continued.

"Okay, so, I was telling you my town was like a magnet for supernatural and demonic activity, right?"

"The Sunnydale Hellmouth, right under your school, sure. If I was you, I would have transferred to a highschool in the next district."

"Shoulda, woulda, coulda, didn't. Anyhow, by the time I found out about it, there was friends now there who needed me."

"Buffy, Willow and Cordelia."

He looked back at her in surprise. She blushed, looked down to avoid his stare, smiled a guilty smile, "I, um, sort of pumped Faith for details."

"Details on what?"

She fidgeted, smoothed down her jeans which were perfectly tight already, then looked back at him, "On you..." she said at last, her voice lowered to a near-whisper.

"Why?"

"Finish the story. I need to know." she shifted desperately back to the subject at hand.

"I...yeah... Okay, I cheated on Cordelia and she felt wronged, and who could blame her? Anyway, this made her the prime target for a Vengeance demon."

"Oh, I've heard of them." she nodded, "I think I see where this is going."

"She made a wish, that Buffy never came to town, and the world was changed, leaving Cordy trapped in a new reality where vampires ruled the roost." he was amazed at how easy it was to talk about Cordelia, you'd think it wouldn't be, considering she'd been dead for just two weeks now. But it still twisted his gut when he thought of what he'd done to her, back then.

"Anyway, long story short-"

"Too late."

"Ha-ha, funny. Anyway, Cordelia told that dimension's Giles enough for him to find the Vengeance demon and destroy the source of her power, and everything changed back. Or so we thought."

"Ahhh, let me guess, the Einstein Law of Infinite Dimensions."

"Yep, the alternate reality remained. We even had an accidental visitor from it a month or so later." he frowned at the memories, then punched the wall, "So it's all my fault. If I'd not pulled a Bill Clinton none of this would be happening. We'd never have been tossed into this rat-hole of a reality."

Ariel rose and moved up behind him, gripped his shoulder and turned him round to face her, "Look at me."

He sighed, did so, "What?"

"It's not your fault we're here. We'd still have been tossed somewhere by that Initiative guy, and maybe it would have been an even worse place then this."

He rolled his eye, "How could it be any worse then this?"

"Trust me, there are a lot worse dimensions then this one. I've heard of this place called _Qour'toth_ that's like a major terrordrome. And then there's _Ithinexia_, _Le'Zopp-Geunk_, _Pylea_, the World of Shrimp-"

"That actually exists?" Xander gaped in disbelief.

"Sure, it's one of the more famous ones. I hear they get as big as houses there."

"What, the shrimp? Wow, maybe we can stop there on the way back home, I've been jonesing for a seafood barbecue for the longest time."

She grinned, "I'll spring for the cocktail sauce."

He was suddenly very aware she'd subtly slipped into his personal space. And was stroking his left bicep gently. And her eyes were glistening, ever so slightly.

"Ariel?"

"Yes?"

"Why... Why were you asking Faith about me?"

"I...um..." she looked down at her feet, "I dunno..."

"It's not fair you know."

She looked back up, "What's not fair?"

"I've got nobody to ask."

"Ask about what?"

"About you." and he leaned in and kissed her.

It was short and gentle and over in a moment. She stared back at him, eyes wide, "You-You shouldn't have done that."

"Why? I've been really wanting to do it." then he frowned, "Wait, is this about that Thrall power of yours, have you been using it on me?"

"What? No! I would _never_-"

"Maybe it's leaking or something." He got a kick out of the fact she didn't see he was just teasing her.

She scowled, "My Thrall power doesn't _leak_. I have to focus and concentrate to make it work, and when you're around the last thing...I seem to be able...to do is..." he gripped her shoulders and pulled her close, she was breathing hard now, her heart beating in her chest like a jackhammer, her knees felt weak, "...is focus and concentrate..."

"Tell me about it." he whispered, and then he kissed her again, deep this time. Ariel slid arms around his waist and up his back, returned the embrace earnestly. The world vanished around them and there was only the sensation of their pressed bodies, her in his arms, she in his strong grip, their lips moving as one organ. It seemed to go on forever and Ariel's fingers dug into his shoulder-blades, her finger-tips glowed, and tiny twists of white energy sizzled up from him into her.

She gasped into his mouth and her eyes flew back, she slumped in his grip, "...my...god..."

"What?" he asked, as soft points of white light danced in the iris of his good eye.

"It's...never, ever been like...like..."

"Like? What are you talking about?"

"It-" with a hum, the bars to the cell slid back and they looked round together in surprise.

"Oh...um, sorry. I didn't know you two were, um, doing that..." the witch stammered in embarrassment.

But Xander heard none of it. His jaw sagged and his arms fell from Ariel, "Sonofa_bitch_..."

Ariel looked at him in confusion as he stepped from her and moved toward the woman. He caught her by the shoulders and grinned like a maniac, "You're alive! You're ALIVE!"

And Tara Maclay could think of nothing to say...

**End of Part II...**


	18. Chapter VI: Part III

_Half a Wishverse continent away..._

"Those aren't neutronic missiles!" Solomon shouted as he shouldered the ruined truckstop diner's door open and rushed inside.

"Ya think!" Faith powered after him, caught his arm and jumped the wide steel counter, hauling him bodily with her. They crashed to the floor in heap and a moment later a barrage of heavy fire ripped into the front of the diner, shattering the mud-stained glass windows and ratcheted across the length of the counter. Hard-bore slugs tore through and blew fist-sized holes in the wall, Faith and Solomon huddled beneath the rain of spinning wood and plastic.

Then it was past and she jumped up, he following a moment later. She looked at the perforated wall, saw darkness beyond the holes, then leaned back and kicked the wall with all her strength. Solomon gaped as her foot knocked a meter-wide gap into being, shedding light on a stone-walled back room. Musty barrels and leaning boxes lined it. From back outside a distant squealing sounded, growing in cadence rapidly.

"Aw crap!" and he dived through the hole.

Faith didn't hesitate and jumped after him, landed in the semi-darkness. Solomon pulled her to a back door and tried in vain to open it by twisting the fused knob, Faith pushed him to the side and swung back an arm, then punched the door out of it's frame with _twang!_ of hinges, and the two of them charged out the back of the restaurant, hoofed it across the open field of crab grass.

A second later the diner detonated into an expanding fire-ball.

The resultant shockwave tossed them, they flew ten meters and flipped over a drop-off, rolled down a short hill and ended by crashing into a wide stack of old trash bags and green recycle bins. A pair of wide-winged fighters soared overhead, returning to formation for a moment, then split from each other with razor-sharp precision. They arced away in opposite directions, entering into wide loops, and began to make their way back for a second run.

Faith sat up, shook the coffee grounds from her hair, "You okay?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess." he rolled over and got to his feet, unslung his rifle, "How about you?"

"I'm five-by-five." she leaned back, then flung herself to a standing position with a hard thrust of her torso.

Solomon stared her up and down, "Nice moves. How did you do that back there? With the wall. And the door."

"Flintstone vitamins. They work wonders, ya know."

"Vitamins?" he jacked his weapon up to maximum power and flipped the sight up, locking it into position above the breech, "If I didn't know any better I'd say you were a Slayer."

"Really? Ya don't say. You good with that zap-gun?"

"I'm not bad."

She grabbed it from his grip, pressed the stock to her shoulder and bent to the sight, found the power gauge and returned it to normal settings, "I'll bet a thousand bucks I'm better."

"Something tells me I'd lose that wager."

"Smart boy." then her eye widened at the sight of the ship closing on their position, "That sure don't look like any F-16 I've ever seen."

"Next-generation assault fighters called Wind-Wraiths, they're fusion powered and capable of MACH 6. Gyro-assisted 7.62mm wing cannons and ventral-side hailfire missiles. Serious pain."

The bladed silver fighter expanded in her scope and she stared at the face of the yellow-skinned demon hunched in the cockpit. She held her breath and the humming rifle steadied in her grip until it didn't move at all. Solomon stared in amazement, it was like she was made of stone. And then she adjusted her aim up slightly, centered and pulled the trigger.

A single blast of charged plasma shot from the barrel. The red bolt lanced up into the sky, slagged through the canopy and struck the demon between the eyes. He slumped over the controls, sending the fighter into a dive. Back on the ground, Faith was already pointed in the opposite direction and the rifle flared a second time. Then she lowered the weapon and handed it back to it's owner.

"Thanks kindly, Saul."

He took it and stared back in disbelief, "You can't seriously believe you did anything effective with two normal-level shots from a plasma repeater."

Almost at the same moment, the two fighters screamed down to earth, each half a kilometer away, and exploded. Solomon looked back-and-forth between the twin firestorms, his mouth hanging open. Then he looked back to Faith in awe.

"You _are_ a Slayer!"

"Guilty as charged. But keep it to yerself, 'kay? Otherwise I'll havta cap your ass."

"Sure! Right!"

That settled, Faith turned and headed back to the highway. He caught up to her a moment later, face shinning with hero worship. She glanced at him and rolled her eyes, stuffed hands into the pockets of her jean-jacket, "Quit it, it's annoying."

"It's incredible though! You really are from another dimension. An alternate one where _you're_ the Chosen One instead of Kendra."

"Actually, there's like a hundred plus Slayers where I come from."

"A..._hundred_..."

"Yep. And we have a union and everything. We even get payed." she frowned at the thought of the tight-fisted Giles, "Well, sort of..."

"A..._hundred_..."

"At least. And we're always on the look-out for more Slayers. It's sorta how I ended up in this dump you call home. No offense."

"None taken." then his eyes went wide, "You aren't here to take Kendra back with you, are you? Because you can't, we need her."

"Trust me, we ain't." she licked her lips, the face of her predecessor hovering before her mind's eye, "All we want is to get back home, nuthin more. She's all yours and you're welcome to her."

They crested a hill on the Interstate and in the distance the first shattered buildings rose up, "So, that's Topeka?"

He nodded, "It shouldn't be long now."

She studied the sky line with disapproval, "Tell me again why we're going to a ruined city?"

"I didn't tell you the first time."

"Bein a smart-ass with me ain't a good policy, yo." she snapped, "Back in my world, Slayers have a license to kill."

"Really?"

"No, not really. But don't piss me off." they were among houses now, and a half-collapsed Seven-Eleven loomed on the right, "What's here that we need to get to?"

"The subway." he replied confidently.

"Huh? It's still working?"

"No...and yes. We kind of maintain it for emergency transportation."

"Where in Topeka are we going on a subway?"

"Not in Topeka. We're going to another place."

"On a subway? You messin with me?"

"Never. Just trust me." and he gestured with his rifle at a concrete half-wall, "There, that's it."

They reached the steps and descended into darkness. After a minute they reached bottom and Solomon fumbled on his belt, pulled out a pair of flares and struck them to life on the concrete wall, handed her one. Orange light flashed and expanded fast to illuminate the ruins of a cavernous station. Chipped marble support beams glistened dully, holding up a cracked and sloping ceiling two stories above. Where the tracks and exit tunnels should be there was instead a massive cave-in, with skeletal limps protruding here and there. Faith frowned in disgust, "Yo, some righteous carnage happened here."

"You have no idea." he replied, as he made his way to the far wall. He slipped behind a line of dilapidated pop machines and disappeared. Faith's eyes narrowed, "What are ya doin? I _am_ thirsty, so nice call."

He didn't reply, but there came a grating sound, like stone-on-stone, and she jogged over and stepped behind as he had. And found nothing but a meter-wide gap. He was gone. _Okay..._

She prowled forward, free hand slipping under her shirt for what was hidden there, "Saul? Where'd you get to? No time for jokes, my nerves are raw enough as it is-" the grating noise sounded behind her and she spun fast. And gaped as a door-sized section of the wall slid back, and there was Solomon, grinning.

"Pretty cool, huh?" he pointed to a cement brick on the exterior wall, "See this symbol?"

Faith peered closer, "It's a triangle. With three letters inside: H.R.I." she pressed it and it slid back with a soft click. The portal slid shut with a puff of dust. She pressed it again, but nothing happened, "Jeez, I broke it."

The panel slid back on it's own, Solomon leaned out, "One tap is all you need to shut it, but there's another code sequence to open it." she stared at him expectantly, he smiled, then told it to her. After she tested it once, she moved forward and stepped inside, "So...what is it?"

"See for yourself."

The chamber was very similar to the one she'd just left: a standard subway station, though this one was half the size of the other one and in remarkably well-kept condition. But there was nothing in it, no kiosks or pop machines, not even destroyed ones. It was as empty as Al Capone's vault.

"You're looking the wrong way." Solomon advised, so she turned around.

Down the left side of the chamber, a polar opposite to the station outside, a line of tracks stretched both ways into opposite exit tunnels, and a lone and dented engine car sat in the center of the rails.

"I don't get it. What is this? Did your Silver City Irregulars build it?"

He shook his head, "Nope, some covert government agency did, back in the Sixties. At least we think that's when."

"What for? Is this the only secret station? No, wait, there would have to be at least one more, or what would be the point."

"Right. Actually, there are nine of them, each in a different city. When the last survivors of the Vampire Underground's nuclear attack found Silver City, the military complex there had a record of the Reserve Stations in their hard copy files, along with a few other useful secrets."

"Military complex? I thought Silver City was, well ya know, a city?"

"Actually, it's a...um...well, you'll see. Anyhow, the Stations were never used, must have been near the end of the Cold War when they finished building them, and budget cuts ended the project before they could be activated. So the tunnels were sealed up. So we located each one and unsealed them, brought in and fixed up subway engine cars, and viola!" he beamed proudly, "As of ten months ago we have a working subterranean transportation network that can get us anywhere in the US of A within ten hours."

"Pretty cool, yeah." Faith was genuinely impressed, "But that train looks odd. Not like the ones back home."

He nodded as they closed on it, "Powered by a fusion coil, locked tight and plated with titanium. It's stronger then a bank vault and can only be opened with this." he held up a palm-sized black remote, then stuck it back in his camo jacket.

"Very cool." Faith grinned, "Can I drive?"

"I'll be the one doing the driving, girl." spoke a new voice, and they halted in surprise.

Suddenly a hulking figure in black leather was standing between them and the train. He must have been concealed by shadows but now he was there, blocking their passage. Faith gaped and her spine went cold as ice, her stomach flip-flopped, she knew that voice, "You gotta be _kidding_ me..." she breathed.

"I assure you I'm not." and the stranger stepped into the amber light of the sputtering flare.

There was the sound of running feet and Solomon spun about, leveled his rifle on a horde of vampires as they streamed through the entrance, "How the...jeez, this looks bad." he moved back-to-back with the Slayer, "Think we can handle this?"

But she didn't answer him, she only had eyes for the massive figure stalking toward her. _This can't be real, it's gotta be a nightmare, I wanna to go home..._

"Take him alive, and get the remote for the train. The girl is mine." rumbled the vampire leader and his band spread out, yellow eyes locked on Solomon.

"Faith? Faith!" he resisted the urge to turn around, it was just too dangerous, "What the hell is wrong with you? DO something!"

But she was frozen, unable to move, as the vampire named Kakistos raised his cloven hands and closed on her...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

"This isn't a military base?" Ariel stared at her in disbelief as their two rescuers led the way, "It's a floating city? A literal Stratos?"

This world's Slayer nodded as they prowled through the twisting network of air ducts, "It is one of fourteen, each the span of nearly three kilometers. Adam controls the skies, and the Underground rules the earth."

"And what do humans have?"

"Slavery and concealment, nothing more. There is but one freehold left: Silver City."

Ariel shook her head, "One city... How many people?"

"Aboot two thousand refugees."

"How many soldiers?"

"Thirty-three."

"Thirty-three?"

"Counting the witch and I."

She shook her head, "Unbelievable. How do you keep even _that_ place?"

"It is well concealed."

"Magic?"

Kendra nodded, "It is only through a constant effort it remains that way. We will take you there. Your friend will be waiting."

"Oh good! I was worried about Faith. So, you're a Slayer too?" she had witnessed her in action just before they'd re-entered the ducts and there had been no mistaking it.

"Yes." and then her dark eyes narrowed, she looked at the slim blonde curiously, "What do you mean, too?"

"Oh, Faith is also a Slayer. One of the best, or so I've been told."

"One of the-" Kendra gripped her saber tighter, "There cannot be more then one."

"Sorry to tell you, but that's not a rule where we come from..."

Two meters behind them, Xander tore his gaze from the Caribbean Slayer's back, and returned it to the woman beside him. Kendra was one thing, incredible of course but hey, after seeing another Spike in the flesh he'd been expecting to run into others he'd known.

Anya, after a few drinks one night, had told him all about this place, and how those here were not so different from the counterparts on his world. The alternation in their timelines were only separated by eight years after all. _But look how much has changed in all this time, it's unbelievable. And talking about unbelievable..._ He watched Tara's nostrils twitch at the spinning dust particles fanning into the shaft. _Willow will be floored, literally she'll freak. Maybe...maybe I shouldn't tell her..._

Tara blushed and glanced at him with hooded eyes, "Please stop that."

"What? Oh, sorry." he averted his gaze, "Didn't mean to stare. It's just-"

"How?" she asked.

"How what?"

"How did I...I d-die..." she looked back down, gripped her staff tighter.

He frowned, "How'd you know?"

"Your reaction at seeing me, you looked like you had seen a ghost."

"Ah. Heh, an open book, me. Sorry, I know that's a lousy way to find out."

She nodded, "So? How'd it happen?"

"You...she was shot, collateral damage. The bullet was ment for somebody else."

"Oh..." she looked at him out of the corner of her eye, "Were you there? Wh-When it happened?"

"You stutter."

Tara looked away quickly and bit her lip, "I'm sorry, I d-don't mean...don't mean to."

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I just mean, it's uncanny, you are_ just _like her. Well, except for the dead thing." and he glanced down at her hands, "And the Gandalfy staff. My Tara didn't have anything like that. What's it do?"

"Lots of things. It's a hybrid of Adam's fusion technology and several wiccan enchantments. It's the only one of it's kind."

"I watched you toast that demon with it, it packs a real punch."

"Who killed me?" she shifted abruptly back to the original topic.

"I...he's dead..."

She looked at him mournfully, "Not because of what he did to me? You said he wasn't out to get me. I mean the other me."

"Well..." Xander shrugged, "Back home we had a mutual friend, and you two were very...close. And when you-she was killed, they sort of lost it, and went on a wild-wiccan rampage."

She shook her head sadly, "Was this person...was she a she?"

He nodded, "Yep. If she found out about you, I don't know what she'd do."

Tara thought for a long moment, "You shouldn't tell her." she said softly and decisively.

He nodded, "Yeah, I was sorta thinking the same thing."

"If it was m-me, if it was reversed, I...I wouldn't want to know."

Neither of them spoke for a long time, as the passage slopped downwards into the inky darkness, lit only by the soft blue glow bleeding from the head of her staff. Then Xander pulled out his Initiative scanner and tapped at the dead keys. He'd got it back when they'd liberated his and Ariel's belongings from a Detention holding locker, along with the XM8 carbine and his Glock pistol. Tara peered down at the chromed device with interest, "That looks like something from Adam's laboratories."

"Heh, you're not far off." he pried the back off and studied the cracks in the circuit boards, "So, is all this space-age tech his doing?"

"Uh-huh. Nearly been five years now, since he emerged." her eyes grew veiled, as dark memories took hold. _Mena..._

"We stopped him in my world." Xander told her, "Before he could grasp any real power."

"Too bad the same didn't happen here." Tara frowned, "He w-was supposed to be the solution to the vampire armies swarming across the planet, but instead he b-built his own Dark Legion of cyborged demons and seized control. The Master fought back-"

"The Master?"

"Yes. By 2001 he and a very powerful demon were in control of most of the vampires. They managed to take over a series of missile silos and launched a surprise attack. But they failed to get Adam, and humanity was caught in the middle."

"Jeez..." he shook his head at the horrible images her explanation was generating, "Armageddon."

She nodded, "Japan and China, Russia, most of Europe, two thirds of North and South America, it's all gone. Just a blackened wasteland."

"Like Kansas?"

"Much, much worse. That was decimated later in a fusion-based attack. You were l-lucky to appear where you did. Many regions are deadly to even fly over."

"All because Buffy didn't come to Sunnydale in time." he scowled at the thought. _It's like a tapestry. Pull out one thread and the whole thing unravels. And much worse then even Anya was aware of. And all because I cheated on Cordy. Talk about the weight of the world on your shoulders..._

He dug limply at the cracked circuit board. Tara studied his morbid expression, "Worried about getting home?"

"Sort of." he held up the device, "I recorded a bunch of data about one of the power circles that were being used for interdimensional travel, and it also auto-recorded our transition to here." he forced a grin, "How are you on temporal folding?"

"I've d-dabbled a bit. But I'd need the data and your world's runic coordinates."

He shook the broken scanner, "Well, it's all in here, if only I could fix it."

She pointed her staff at it, "Hephaestus here my plea, re-make what has been un-made. _Renovo-Recro_." there was a green flash and the scanner glowed, then came alive again.

Xander gaped, "Holy..." then he slapped the lid back on and began cycling through it's modes, "You're a life-saver, thanks, Tare!"

She smiled meekly.

Kendra halted and waved back at them, "Be silent and put the toy away, we have arrived."

He carefully stowed the device once again and pulled out the XM8 carbine, flicked off the safety, "Good, I've been itching to get off this heap."

"Shhh!" hissed Kendra as she peered up at the grating above them. Yellow light suffused through it's thin slats, "The transport ship is no longer over top." she crouched, then sprang up, caught the lip of the gap. With gentle movements she raised the grating slightly and peered out, "Good, there is still cover." she slid the grate back and crawled out.

Ten seconds later they were all crouched amongst a double line of ribbed cargo boxes. Ariel pressed close to Xander and squeezed his arm. He smiled at her and hefted his carbine, "You ready?"

Pink lightning crackled on her finger-tips, "Always. Saddle-up."

"Lock-and-load."

He looked to Kendra and she nodded, they all stood at once and vaulted the containers, spun about and sprinted in a line for the nearest transport ship. But Kendra lurched to a sudden stop and they followed suit.

Xander looked about him fast, XM8 at the ready, "What? We have to move before we're spotted-"

"Too late." Tara said, and for the first time he realized how very quiet the Bay was. Slowly the four turned around.

"How nice of you to pop in." said Spike and they beheld him across the hanger, standing before a line of what must be at least fifty demon soldiers.

"And I was just about to send for you anyway." the blonde vampire grinned, "Jolly good, saved me the effort."

"Always happy to oblige." Xander leveled his rifle on him, flicked on the laser site, "These bullets are packed with fulminated wood particles. I pull the trigger and you're dust in the wind."

"Oh, will I be? You don't say."

"Yeah, you will be. And don't think I won't enjoy it."

"Well, you're a bonny Prince Charlie, ain't you? Even missing the eye. I like a man with the bollocks to stand up to me. Too bad it's not just me here though."

"Your demons do not scare us." Kendra stepped forward, sword raised.

"Oh, I wasn't talkin about the lads."

Xander scowled, "Then who-" but Ariel gripped his arm tightly and he looked to her upturned face, followed the gaze to

"Oh crap..."

"Welcome to _my_ world, Alexander Harris."

The deep, charismatic voice boomed across the Bay, and then the hulking shape stepped off the catwalk and dropped to the deck before them with a resounding clang of his heavy feet. He raised up, yellow light glistening off his alloyed enhancements, and cast a shadow across the four suddenly very small humans.

"I am gratified to meet you at last. We have so much to discuss..."

**To be concluded...**

**End of Chapter VI...**


	19. Chapter VII: Part I

**SLAYERS: THREE OF A KIND  
**

**Chapter VII - Half a Chance**

_U.C. Sunnydale, February 6th, 2000..._

Tara was the first one to see him and ironically the only one to survive to tell the tale.

She had enrolled in the relatively-unremarkable California college because of it's anonymity, and of course it's proximity to the town of Sunnydale. After the media frenzy that had followed the vampire massacre of a year earlier, enrollment was way down and supernatural incidents were at an all-time high. Which meant there was little to no chance her father would ever think to look for her here.

It was perfect.

In September she arrived and enrolled in classes, moved into a private dorm room, and joined the local Wiccan chapter. And in December, during the bi-weekly meeting, she met Mena. She was just shadowing the group, still trying to get up the nerve to ask to join, and since Tara never really felt part of the wannabe cable (partially because she could actually do magic while they all faked their way through even meditation) they instantly hit it off. A mutual attraction didn't hurt either and soon they were quite involved. It was a turbulent, wonderfully exciting eight weeks.

And then abruptly Mena vanished without a trace.

When three days of frantically searching the campus and nearby town physically failed to pay off, Tara gave in and used the burgeoning powers she had concealed even from her love. And within an hour she had located a secret elevator in one of the men's dorms, and it took her beneath the university and into a chamber of horrors...

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Dismembered body parts were strewn across the huge laboratory floor, some still clutching empty assault rifles and pistols. Greasy gun smoke hung in the air and bullet holes riddled the floor, ceiling and walls. She weaved among the carnage, a flashlight tight in her left hand, while her right was up, palm-out, with a locator crystal strobing brighter and brighter, leading her into the pit in the center of the room.

She peered over the ladder's top fearfully, but saw only shadows below, "H-Hello? Is anybody d-down there? Mena?"

Nothing.

So she swallowed hard and pocketed the items, swung round onto the rungs and began her descent. A minute later she touched bottom and let go, turned and moved forward, flashlight out and on once more. Her shoes squelched through gummy liquid and she didn't have to look down to know what it was.

_It's blood...I can smell it. Please, Goddess aid me, please don't let me find_ "Mena..."

She lay strapped to a metal surgical table, naked and splashed with blood. Her stomach was peeled back and silver barbs of wire spiraled into the gaping cavity. Tara sobbed and reached out a quaking hand, brushed the strands of dark hair from her lover's eyes. And found the left one was gone, replaced with a metallic eye-piece.

"What did they d-do to you..." she whispered.

"Made me perfect." replied the girl and Tara nearly fainted.

"No..."

"Yes." and the artificial eye lit-up crimson and she sat up on the table, looked at her and smiled, "Aren't I beautiful? Won't you kiss me?"

Tara was backing up, her expression one of love-lorn horror, her mouth opening and closing under the knuckles she had pressed to it. Mena swung round and slipped off the table. And fell to the floor because her legs didn't exist below the knee. She squirmed like a crab, wires crackling, and managed to turn over and look up at her lover, "That's odd, my legs were there the last time I was awake. What happened to them?"

"They were donated to serve the greater good." answered a deep male voice behind Tara and she thumped into him a half-second later. She spun around in terror and her light blazed across his monstrous form. Half-man, half-demon, brutally-melded together with technology, he was a sight to behold that filled her with a mixture of awe and fear.

He cocked his head at her, stepped forward, "Do not be afraid, there is no reason to fear me. I have been created to purify this world."

"Wh-What _are_ you?" she back-peddled fast, banged up against the table. She looked down at Mena, the girl was staring at the Frankenstein-like man as he stalked towards them.

"Project 314! Adam, you are he, the progenitor, the cyber-savior, the one!" trilled the mutilated girl as her limbs beat an excited staccato on the blood-stained floor.

"The one..." he mused, hesitating for a second, "Yes, I like that. It is fitting. I am THE ONE."

"THE ONE! THE ONE!"

Adam looked back to the cowering Tara and held out his metallic right hand, "Come, I will make you one of the first. Even now, my Dark Legions are surrounding this campus, rounding up every student, every teacher, to the last man and woman, and they will be the first."

"The first? The f-f-first what?"

"The first to understand, to become one with me." and his index finger pivoted up with a whir, and a round computer chip, covered in tiny flickering red lights, extended from his hand on a long insertion needle.

"It is painless, I will implant it just behind your heart. And then you will understand, you will _see_." and he reached for her, "Come, and give yourself to-"

Her hand flew up, "Hestia stand with me, _Acquiro-Tergum_!" a sparkling blue barrier materialized between them and his grasping hand sparked against it.

His eyes narrowed, "Interesting."

Tara straightened up, hand still held out before her, as the huge cyborg swung back then punched the field. It bowed and she winced as turquoise lightning crackled between them. A vise-like grip encircled her right ankle and she gaped down to see Mena attempting to pull herself up her length.

"You cannot defy THE ONE! You must DIE!"

"I'm sorry." she whispered, then her eyes went black, she flung out her left hand, it crackled with power and she sent a bolt of energy slamming into Mena's gaping chest cavity. She screamed and convulsed, fell off her and rolled away dead. _Better that then undead_, Tara thought morosely, tears beading down her cheeks.

Adam was punching and slamming against the force-field now, and it wouldn't hold much longer. She stared at his gruesome expression for a long second, then turned away, "This isn't over." her words were cold and loaded with a promise that scared her deeply.

"You cannot stand against my will!" he shouted, "It is the true path. Your race shall fall before me and be fodder for my war machine."

She backed up, face pale, then raised her arms, spoke the words of a teleportation spell she never thought she'd have the power to perform. As the field fell and Adam charged her, black energies spiraled about her body and she was gone, a moment before he could get within reach. And though she saw his image many times afterwards, she never faced him in the flesh again.

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_Until today..._

"Welcome to _my _world, Alexander Harris."

And he plunged downwards, like Zeus descending from Mount Olympus. With dire force he struck the deck, huge booted feet spread wide, and the Mission Bay of the flying fortress shook as if Heaven itself was falling. He straightened up, massive right gauntleted fist held at the ready, his eyes glinting.

"I am gratified to meet you at last. We have so much to discuss."

Kendra bent to the charge and made to launch herself across the deck, but Tara caught her shoulder, "No. He's mine."

The Slayer scowled and looked back, "We have discussed this, you are not-"

"-ready? Remember, back on the cliff, Kendra? You were the one who told me I could do anything."

"Yes, but-"

And Tara stepped past her, raised her staff before her and marched forward, toward the being who held sway over three-quarters of her world.

Xander gaped and made to run after her, "What? No! What's she doing?"

Ariel caught his arm and pulled him back, "What she has to. It's why she's here." her eyes glistened with repressed power, "Can't you feel it? I can."

"But he'll kill her! You don't know what he's capable of. He's a monster!"

"And she's a witch. Leave her to it, I'm sure they'll be lots for us to do in a moment anyway."

His face twisted, "But I can't stand by as she dies again, I just can't!"

Ariel raised her fists, which crackled with rose-colored lightning, "Then lets lend a hand, shall we?"

He grinned darkly and brought up the carbine, "_Now_ you're talking! I call Spike."

Across the Bay, Adam's gaze shifted downwards and locked onto the fair-haired woman in brown leather crossing the deck toward him, black staff held at the ready. His eyes narrowed, "Wait... I know you, do I not?"

"Yes." she replied, "You killed my lover."

"Ah, yes. The witch." and a grin teased his twisted lips, "So...you survived the purge of your race. Very commendable." he looked past her to Kendra, "And you're aligned with the Slayer. Excellent."

She halted and lowered the staff to bear on his chest, "I'm glad you're pleased, that way you can d-die happy."

"Die? I cannot die. I am _immortal_."

"I'd like to test that."

He looked back to her, "Would you now? That would be an interesting experience, I think." he gestured to Spike, "Kill the other women, but keep Harris alive for interrogation." he pointed to Tara, "The witch is mine."

"Will do." and the vampire drew a curved saber from under his leather duster, nodded to the leader of the demonic-vanguard, "You heard THE ONE, let's get them." and he vamped, lept forward across the deck, they streamed after him.

The soldiers split around Adam and Tara, ignoring them in their charge. The hybrid dictator raised his arm and with a shriek of bone-on-metal a meter-long skewer extended, "Shall we?"

"You're going to have to do better then that! _EXPELIRUS_!" and her staff flashed...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Beneath the ruined city of Topeka..._

"Faith? Faith!" yelled the Silver City Irregular as he stood back-to-back with the Slayer from another world, "What the hell is wrong with you? DO something!"

But she stood frozen, unmoving, her eyes saucered, as a figure from her darkest nightmares stalked toward her, yellow eyes locked on her jugular. Her stomach felt like it had been slit open and filled with hot lead, her mouth was dry and her underwear was threatening to not be. Solomon was shouting at her as he began firing on the encroaching vampire cadre circling for him, but Faith didn't hear him, because an entirely different voice was yelling inside her shock-addled brain.

_"Faith! Faith, help me! Oh dear god, where are youuuuu!"_

_The last vowel sound was drawn out as the towering vampire drove his cloven hand down like a scalpel and speared into the prostrate Watcher's back. She howled madly and writhed on the table she was nailed face-down to. The vampire minions who had lured her from her home howled their excitement as they crowded in a ring around the dusty warehouse floor._

_The goateed elder grinned and dug deep, as the woman writhed in agony, crying her wordless scream, then he found what he sought, and caught onto the base of her spinal cord. With a twitch of his talon-like fingers he severed it and took hold, then tore it from her back like he was boning a fish. Marion convulsed once, back arcing and blood-splashed face twisting from side-to-side, then she slumped back down dead._

_The watching vampires cheered, and their leader waved the blood-soaked spine in victory above his head._

_And high above, young Faith stared down through the dust-stained panes of the warehouse's skylight, having arrived only five seconds earlier. Five seconds too late, "No..." Her stomach felt like it had been slit open and filled with hot lead and for a moment she was sure she would just collapse there on the gravel-strewn roof and never move again._

_But only for a moment._

_The vampires froze in their celebration as the skylight above them shattered and the Slayer plunged down to land on the table, her murdered Watcher between her wide-spread feet, "BASTARD!" she screamed and plunged her stake deep into the surprised Kakistos's right eye..._

"FAITH!" roared Solomon as he blasted the head off another vamp, "A LITTLE HELP!" and he kicked back with his boot and nailed her in the back of the leg.

She turned round and whacked him on the shoulder, "I _heard_ you, boy, so lay off."

He glanced at her, relieved, "Cool, thought you checked out at the memory bank there, for a sec."

"Yeah, I did. But only-" Kakistos reached for her back, she dropped like a stone, spun, and spin-kicked his legs out from under him, "-for a second!"

The vampire elder roared as he pitched over backwards and the battle was on.

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Aboard the Flying Fortress..._

Imagine a three-ring circus crossed with the Crusades and you'd be half way to what was currently taking place in the Mission Bay of the Dark Legion's FF-12. For those involved it was intense and deadly of course, but to each it meant something different on a different level. For some it was blind loyalty dictated by a control chip installed behind whatever their equivalent of a heart was. To some it was duty and doing what had to be done. To some it was the cruel adrenaline rush that kept their undead life going. And for one it was the pure quest for revenge born of the crimes that had been visited upon her world, her friends, her love, and _her_. And it was being directly channeled through her soul in a torrent of black energized mystical power.

Too bad it just wasn't cutting it.

"I hope you do not mind my stealing your patent, but it was just too smart of an idea to ignore." Adam told her as he marched across the deck toward her, the oval force-field swirling around him pulsing brightly with each energy-blast that slammed into it. He'd ignited the shield after she'd blasted his skewer to atoms with her wizard's staff, and in doing so had taken their duel to the next level, "I have generated so many enemies in such a short time, even among my own ranks, so once again, witch, I thank you."

The normally stoic expression on Tara Maclay's round face had been replaced with intense lines, a manifestation of the pressure she was under. The desire for revenge was vanishing fast and in it's place a thirst for vengeance now held court in her heart and soul. _ Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. He has to be stopped for both the crimes he's committed and the ones he_ will _commit if he continues to exist. I have to focus on that, I can't let the dark overwhelm me. Remember what happened to Amy in New Zealand, remember!_

Adam's field suddenly snapped off, he turned to the side and took the brunt of the next blast on his implanted shoulder guard, then ducked under the next and sprang high, higher then any normal human ever could.

Tara swung her staff up as he arced high toward a catwalk, teeth gritting and will-fueled trigger pumping shots in a twisting spray after the demonized-cyborg. Beams slagged and support lines were atomized apart, then Adam landed on a grating and was out of her line-of-site.

"Damn!" she whirled around to the left, then back to the right, _Where'd he go? Where_-TWANG! the catwalk directly above her plunged downwards as it's support cables were severed! She dived desperately out of the way as Adam watched above from another one, she slid across the floor and-_screamed_ as the end came down on her left leg, pinning her to the deck!

Xander was behind a row of cargo containers, Heckler-and-Koch XM8 perched on the lid and ratcheting high-speed, pumping another volley into encroaching demon soldiers, when Tara's agonized yell tore him from his concentration. No thought entered his mind, no decision was made, he just reacted.

He stood in a rush, vaulted the meter-high box before him and ducked to the side as a red bolt of energy sizzled past him. He slapped the carbine to his shoulder and flicked it to semi-auto, sent three shots into the face of the finned demon who'd tried to pick him off, then as the armored monster was flying backwards in a spray of it's own yellow blood he was charging across the deck, weaving around prone bodies and smoking debris.

"Get OUT OF MY WAY!" he hollered and blasted a pair of soldiers who rose up before him.

He dodged their plummeting corpses and discharged the rifle's now-empty magazine, snagged a fresh one from the strap and slapped it into the stock. The smoking silver shards of a half-blasted transport ship loomed and he dodged down it's length to the left, leapt out and fired, sending slugs down the back of a passing demon. It went down hard and he charged past it. Their armor was designed for the weapons of _this _reality, and a slug-thrower hadn't been used for nearly five years as the Dark Legion's factories pumped out an unending and very deadly collection of fusion-based weaponry. So depleted uranium cartridges dipped in mercuroid-enhanced teflon were something brand-new and so far unstoppable, Xander had used his purloined Initiative weapon to great effectiveness in the battle so far. He'd dropped more demon soldiers then Ariel and Kendra put together.

Now he was going to see how well it would fare on the demon's god himself.

None of this went through his mind though, the only thing that did was an image of Tara, _his _Tara smiling as the window behind her shattered and Warren's bullet slammed into her back and sprayed Willow across the chest and face with her blood. He hadn't been in their bedroom when it happened but in his mind's eye there a crystal-clear image of it happening and he'd never let go of the guilt of not being able to stop the psycho when he'd come around the back of Buffy's place and fired off his fateful shots.

But it wasn't going to happen again, IT WASN'T GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN!

The echo of Adam's return to ground level still shook up through Tara as she bit her lip and dragged at her pinned leg uselessly. It wasn't budging._ My staff! Blast it free! Where_-she turned over and reached for it-a size-16 gauntleted boot slammed down on it's crystal-fused head, shattering the end into a thousand pieces.

Adam reached down and caught her by the neck, "No more toys, witch, now we play by _my_ rules."

"_Supura_-" she tried to say the Latin trigger-spell but his other hand slapped over her mouth. He kicked the catwalk off her leg and hoisted her up like she weighed nothing, leaned in close and looked deep within her eyes, "Yet another of your pitiful human failings; a propensity to tie your power into the spoken word. Your race has so many Achilles Heels it's a wonder you survive your own births!" and he made to break her neck.

**End of Part I...**


	20. Chapter VII: Part II

_In the not-so hidden subway..._

Former native of the now burned-out city of Chicago John Patrick Solomon, plasma repeater in his hands dealing hot death, was backing up towards the far wall, with the near-hopeless intentions of getting around back of the vampire's position and making for the exit, when his narrowed eyes caught the blur of fast movement on his far left, near the train tracks, and despite the immanent danger hissing and feinting for his blood mere meters away, he chanced it and looked it's way. And saw a sight few human beings have witnessed.

_Seer protect me..._

Kakistos lunged forward, fanged maw gnashing and snarling, massive hands slashing through the dust-strewn air, but Faith stood her ground, body locked into a ready position. He closed for the second time and she met his attack smartly, matching him move-for-move. When he stabbed, she blocked. Where he grasped, she parried. His left arm shot downwards to cleave her skull in two, she bobbed and weaved, knifed through his defenses and double-punched him in the chest. He stumbled back, she swished her arms apart and knocked his wide, then charged forward and leaped, rotated in the air, right leg flying horizontal, and high-kicked him brutally across the jaw so hard the steel toe tore free of her hiking boot.

She landed, he crashed down on one knee. The metal toe-cap clanged down on the tracks before the titanium engine-car and bounced off down the tunnel.

Solomon tore his amazed eyes away from Faith as a vampire sommersaulted over another and landed nearly a foot from the end of his plasma rifle. He wrenched his attention back and fired, blasting the monster's legs out from under him, "Get back! I said GET BACK!" and he fired again. Then again and again.

Faith fought the urge to look back at the man she'd been forced to partner with. _As long as I can still hear that whiz gun, Saul's still in the land of the semi-living. _She circled round the gasping giant, trying to get behind him, _But before his charge runs dry I gotta finish Bluto here. Okay, how did Buffy and I do it last time? Aw, frig it! I'll just do it the old fashion way..._

She darted to the left, swung back then slugged him in the back of the head. He grunted and lurched forward, used it and got to his feet, spun back. Faith was going for a neck-hold and he knocked her aside with a blow to the face, sent her spinning. She whipped back, went down into a crouch and wiped blood from her lips, "Good one. You hit harder then most vamps I've fought. But then I like that." she spit then straightened up, "You know, when I watch the tube I always skip the repeats, and now it seems that practice has come back to bite me in the ass. Heh, who could predict?"

"You speak gibberish, girl." Kakistos snorted as he eyed her up-and-down, "But you fight fast and strike far beyond your size, which means only one thing. I'm surprised and somewhat disappointed, I'd wanted to kill Kendra myself." she circled to the right, he pivoted and moved forward to close the gap.

"You're coming up Fours-and-Whores, moron, poker just ain't your game." she shot back at him, "Kendra ain't dead, but I'm a Slayer, just the same!"

"More foolishness. I guess I'll just have to settle for killing the new Slayer, and then mourning my failure to excise the old." he blurred forward with everything he had, she tried to dodge away but he caught her arm, wrenched her back around and pile-drived her with an upper-cut. Her head snapped back and red-tinged saliva sprayed high, he slashed her across the stomach, tearing the bottom of her t-shirt to bloody ribbons, then finished with a shoulder-block that sent her flying backwards _through_ a support pylon.

Concrete sprayed and Faith crashed to the station floor in an avalanche of rocky rubble. As the ceiling above shook from the displaced pressure, Kakistos rounded the pulverized column and caught her by the hair, pulled the limp girl up before him and laughed, "Maybe you were right the first time, because a true Slayer you're _not_." and he caught her shoulder and bent her head back, exposing her neck.

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_High in the sky..._

And Adam made to break Tara's neck.

But there was a loud POW! and his own head snapped hard to the side.

He blinked and servos buzzed angrily within his skull. His head straightened back up, a line of smoke piping out of a vent in the other side of his head, and he looked around. Tara, turning blue in his two-handed grip, did too, if only with her eyes.

"Man that's a small brain you got in there, I musta missed it entirely." Xander stood a meter away, carbine locked to his shoulder and siting through the laser scope.

"My brain pan is protected by a .7 centimeter thick husk of titanium, and all your shot did was cause an easily correctable compression wave. You have no hope of penetrating my skull with such a weapon, Mr. Harris."

Xander pivoted his grip slightly and the red targeting dot slipped from the side of Adam's head to between his eyes, "Can't cover every inch of it, now can you, or it wouldn't be a brain. Even for the most butt-ugly demon-borg ever to be spit out of a lab. Now, what say you put the woman down real gentle like, or I'll try putting one through that human eye of yours."

And Adam actually smiled, just slightly, but it was a smile nonetheless. Xander felt his stomach grow cold. _This guy isn't the same one we faced, he's had years to develop an actual personality. Oh, boy..._

"You are an admirable person, Alexander Harris, honorable and brave. If there had been more like you here perhaps I would not have had to eliminate the human race from this world. But you see, I know your type, I know what motivates and drives you." and he tightened his grip on Tara's neck ever so slightly. Her eyes rolled back and she twisted in agony. Xander's eye widened and he swallowed.

"I will not put the witch down. Instead, _you _will put your rifle down. And then I will release her."

"I-"

"You _will_. Because that is the only way _I_ will."

"I-" and he did it, he lowered the carbine, then chucked it away.

"Put her down, we had a deal." Xander held his ground, arms spread.

Adam turned back to stare into Tara's eyes, "And release her I shall. Once I have snapped her neck."

"NO!" Xander lept for him, Adam raised her high and-PHWAM!

They were blasted backwards away from each other in a detonation of energy. Tara crashed down next to the line of elevators, Xander rammed sideways into the downed catwalk, and Adam slammed into the side of the burned-out transport ship.

And back in the spot on the deck that had been theirs, Ariel now held court. Xander looked up, shaking his head to clear it, then his eye bugged, "Holy crap..."

Her blonde hair was flying round her head, her yellow windbreaker was in shreds and her jeans were stained with yellow blood. And blackish-pink ribbons of lightning throbbed around her limbs and torso, her eyes were glowing orbs of ebony. She was actually hovering an inch off the floor while globes of strobing crimson energy buzzed above her splayed palms.

"I-I have never siphoned off so m-many before," her voice was electronically-melodic, artifical and very scary, "and they were all...all demons!"

"Ariel-" he started to say, but Adam pushed back to his feet and made to charge her.

She flung out both hands and sent the globes flying into him, they slammed into his chest and sent him flying back into the transport again in a flare of carnic power, this time right into it's center and it collapsed down on him with a metallic roar.

Ariel slumped and her feet touched the deck again, her eyes returned mostly to normal. Xander reached her and gripped her by the shoulders, "Are you okay? That was incredible."

She blinked and concentrated, the power faded from around her, then she looked him in the eye, "I never want to do that again. But you need to know something-"

A scream pierced the Bay and they looked around fast to the far right. Xander paled, "Oh, no. In all the chaos and Tara being in trouble, I forgot about-"

"Kendra!" shouted Ariel.

She hung limply horizontal, blood pouring down from a wicked stomach wound from which her own stake protruded, and Spike raised her above his head, a smile upon his vamped-out face, "I guess I'm three-for-three now!" and he turned away and stalked toward the gaping open-end of the Bay. The sky, darkening toward dusk, beckoned.

Energy exploded into being around Ariel and she charged forward with a wordless shout of challenge. Xander looked around fast for his carbine, spotted it beside the collapsed transport and dived to scoop it up. He checked it fast then spun about in place, pressed the stock to his shoulder and took aim. _Come to daddy._ The back of Spike's head materialized in the ocular site. _At last, my lack of depth-perception comes in handy,_ and his finger tightened on the trigger-his ankle was seized in a powerful grip and he was yanked backwards! The shot went high then he slammed down on his back on the deck, gasped in pain as the breath was knocked from his body.

Adam, twin smoking holes in his chest, crawled the rest of the way out of the wreckage and stood, bringing Xander up with him, "Did you really think some demon could defeat me? I am immortal! I am my world's messiah!" he held him high by the front of his jacket, his feet nearly a meter off the ground, "And once I've implanted you with a control chip, like all the rest of my Dark Legion, then I will learn where your world is, and then become _it's_ messiah!"

A bleeping noise sounded from Xander's jacket and Adam's gaze pivoted down to bear on it, "What's this?" his eyes glazed for a moment and the struggling Xander swore he actually saw binary code ghosting across the surface of the cyborg's eyes. Adam smiled, "An Initiative Class-III Multiscanner enhanced with a quintessent sensor pallet, satellite-capable, and complete with Level-Nine High-Security coding. Fascinating..." and the device began to trill loudly and glowed inside the jacket.

"Yes... YES! It has everything I need, the readings, the coordinates, even a recording of a power circle used for interdimensional travel. I...I have it ALL now!" and his eyes returned to normal, the multiscanner went silent. He looked back to Xander who had been busy kicking him over-and-over in the stomach, to no effect, "And now I no longer have a need for _you_, Alexander Harris."

"That... That makes two of us!" the man snapped back, and his hand dove into his coat pocket and came back with a fist-full of Glock, "This relationship is going nowhere, you just aren't right for me, so...let's call it quits, shall we?" and he fired directly into the demon cyborg's right eye, at point-blank range.

_CRACK!_

Adam's head snapped back with a metallic crunch and Xander was released, landed hard on his feet. The cyborg, greasy smoke pumping from the now gaping and blackened eye-socket, fell to his knees with a clang of titanium knee guards, then pitched over on his face, unmoving. Xander turned away, caught up his rifle, and sprinted off to help Ariel.

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_In the bowels of the earth..._

The vampire elder's wide jaw, yellow-stained fangs extended, sank ever-so-slowly towards Faith's naked neck, savoring every moment of his victory. His wide nostrils inhaled the girl's aroma of sweat and exertion. The needle-sharp tips of the twinned demonic canines pressed into the sweet Boston flesh stretched taught over the fragile jugular and the first beads of crimson life-blood pinched forth-Faith's right hand blurred up under her shirt and pulled the reserve stake free from between her breasts, swung it down past her bloody stomach then up and drove it hard into his right eye, "Hands off the merchandise!"

He howled in utter agony and released her, she dropped to the tiles, stumbled, but managed to stay afoot as he spun off, clawing madly at his ruined eye-socket. She grinned, "You gotta love the classics. If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

With a snarl he tore the stake from his skull and tossed it away. Faith sprinted forward and threw out her hand, snatched it from the air. She spun back smartly and raised it above her shoulder, "Hah! That'll teach you to say I ain't a Slayer, you Watcher-kill'n freak-" splot! Her eyes rotated down to her shoulder where the remains of the vampire's eye had just dripped to.

"Aw, yuck, disgusting!" she scraped it off with her left sleeve, then moved away from it's new home on the ground, "My nightmare's been replaced, I'm gonna see _that_ forever, man."

Kakistos roared like a lion and turned round toward her, she had forgotten for a second how close to her he was. With amazing speed for somebody so badly injured he launched himself for her.

"Too slow, Cyclops!" Faith sprang upwards, knees popping loudly, and he soared under her. She dropped back down, spun and bent at the waist, delivered a hard kick into the small of his back, knocking him off the edge of the subway platform. He plunged down onto the tracks, gasped as he nearly fell onto humming third rail, caught himself and heaved over it. _She is b-beyond fast, I n-need to regroup!_

He clambered up as she soared down toward him, landing in a spray of gravel, "This is for Marion!" she roared, and her fists pistoned into his chest, landing blow-after-blow before he could react.

He at last managed to get a punch in, throwing her off her mark for a moment, then he spun away and made to break for the darkness of the right-side tunnel.

"Hey! Nobody told ya you could leave, bitch!" Faith kicked off backwards, flew toward the nearby train, then kicked off it to fly back at Kakistos's retreating back, a meter-and-half high in the air. Her splayed feet slammed into his shoulder-blades and he pitched over bodily, arms batting the air madly. He went down and slammed face-first into the third rail. There was a sputtering of sparks and his body convulsed, he screamed and screamed.

Faith landed on the gravel beside him and jammed the wooden stake into his shoulder, grunted and heaved him over and off the electrified rail. He flopped onto his back, and she gaped down at him. The whole left side of his face was a blackened, churned mass of twisted flesh and exposed bone. The other eye was gone, he now had two empty sockets staring blankly upwards. _Oh jeez..._

She stared down at his horrible grimace, watched his lips moving dumbly, and fingered her stake.

"You know, the old me would have left you like this, whether you had killed Marion or not, that's just the heartless ho I used to be. I'd even have laughed at the memory and told the story in bars to get free tequila shots. But I like to think I've grown, sadly..." and she crouched and rammed the stake two-handed into his chest. It took three tries, but at last he detonated into dust, no two-by-four needed this time.

She straightened up as his grit swirled about her, then stepped gingerly past the dangerous rail, crouched then jumped back up onto the platform. She spun her stake and grinned, "Okay, Solomon, let's finish these dorks off and get going. I wanna see the mite and mystery that is Silver...City..."

She trailed off at the horrific sight now laid out before her, "Oh no..."

And the dark-skinned vampire who held the former Irregular in his grasp rose from the man's perforated neck and licked his chops, "Sorry, but your boy won't be going anywhere, little girl. Except maybe to the cemetery." and he released the limp body to fall amongst the sea of downed and smoking vampires. With smooth style he stepped around Solomon's corpse and strode leisurely toward her, "Chin up though, 'cause his blood was of the highest quality and'll keep me sated for days. It's always nice to find a healthy one, you know?"

"He was a good man and a nice guy." she growled, and charged past him, shouldering him out of the way as she went. He let her go with a chuckle, kept on walking toward the exit as she knelt over Solomon's lifeless body.

She looked up at the vampire, "Don't go far, buddy. You're going to pay for this, mark my words, oh yeah."

He halted and turned back, smoothed down his dark suit and adjusted his purple silk tie, "Don't I... Yes, I _do _know you." he nodded at the memory, "Which is very odd, because I could swear I killed you and your Watcher, back in Boston six years ago. If memory serves, you hadn't been Chosen then and were easy-sleazy to eviscerate."

"Trick..." she muttered at last in recognition, eyes flashing, as she straightened up, leaving Solomon behind. _Jeez, this place is_ really _getting on my nerves. Am I going to run into_ every _dead person I've ever known before I finally make it back home?_

"And you would be Faith," he halted and leaned back on his alligator heels smartly, "well good, it's always nice for a murderer and his victim to know each other's names."

"I agree, whole-heartedly." and she made to charge him, "You being the victim."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that." he replied as the ground began to shake under her feet. Faith hesitated, looked about her, "What the-" then the ceiling between her and Trick _shattered_ and debris spilled downwards in a rocky torrent! She darted backwards, desperately dodging falling ceiling tiles, reached the edge of the subway platform, whirled back.

Through the wide hole in the ceiling, a monstrous dark-green serpent with a dragon-like head as big as an SUV slid down and through. It kept coming-and-coming, coiling down onto the floor, and then it was all through and it rose up, maw gaping and twitching with pincer-like mandibles. It's ebony eyes studied her like a scientist observes a microbe and it cocked it's head with slight interest, "And what do we have here, Mr. Trick?" boomed a voice so deep it could drown-out a fog-horn.

"Believe it or not, I think it's another Slayer." replied the vampire as he made his way around from the back.

"Is she? Well gosh, isn't that fascinating! I_ do_ so love a pickle of a riddle, because I have it on good authority that Kendra is even now mounting a badly-planned invasion of one of Adam's flying fortresses. So, the Sixty-Four Thousand Dollar Question is this: where did she come from?"

Faith stared at the demonic visage that had once been the Mayor of Sunnydale, a man she had spent a great deal of energy trying to block from her memory.

She licked her lips and forced a smirk, "Actually, Dick, the better question is not where I'm _from_, but where am I _going_." and she spun around and jumped off the platform, raising the remote-control she'd just taken from Solomon's jacket. She thumbed the red button and the engine car lit-up, it's side door unlocked and slid back with a hydraulic hum. She dashed through and it clanged shut behind her.

"Wha-STOP HER!" roared the Ascended Mayor and Trick grabbed up Solomon's dropped plasma repeater, opened up with a stream of shots!

They slapped and slammed into the side of the already fast-moving train, but it's titanium armor held beautifully. With a buzz of fusion repellors, it surged forward in a flare of blue light and disappeared into the left-side tunnel. The pure-blooded demon roared in fury and zagged across the station floor, fell onto the tracks and rammed his head into the tunnel. But he was way to big for the smaller then normal passage and only succeeded in caving it in completely.

Far away and retreating fast, the engine car coursed through the darkness, while inside it's dimly-lit interior, Faith slumped against the wall and slid to the floor. She hung her head between her knees and closed her eyes, glad to be alive, if only for now...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Ariel ran, zig-zagging left and right through the sea of downed demon soldiers, her eyes locked on the platinum-haired vampire in the distance as he made his casual way to the end of the Bay, the limp Caribbean Slayer held high above him, her life-blood splattering down onto his shoulders. Demonically-laced carnic energy coursed around and through her, it was all Ariel could do not to just drop to her knees and let the dirty power overtake her in wave after wave of hellbound ecstasy. _Got to...focus...got to...stay in control...or...Kendra dies..._

But for all her power, Ariel couldn't run any faster and she couldn't fire off a blast because Spike was too close to the edge now, she'd risk sending Kendra over anyway. _I'm not going to get there in time, he's already there, he's going to do it and I'm too late_-"NO!" _I'm NOT!_ and she jammed to a stop beside a transport, whipped back and bent at the knee toward it, her feet flashed with energy and she launched at it, whipped around in mid-air and _slammed _her feet down on the ship's side, let loose with her power a second time, atomizing her sneakers and socks, and e_xploded_ away like she'd been fired from a cannon!

"Later, Slayer!" and Spike flung Kendra over the edge. _And she makes three, heh, they should erect a statue to me, I'm the biggest bad of them all!_

She fell away without a sound, arms and legs splayed uselessly. She vanished into the darkening sky far below. Spike grinned maniacly and made to turn away, but an explosion of sound and rose-hued power soared past him, sending him flying to the side in it's wake. He flew backwards and crashed hard back into the wall, pitched over on his face.

Xander came running up, carbine tight in his grip, and halted at the edge of the three story-high opening. Wind blasted across him as he looked down, but he saw nothing, there was no sign of either women.

"Ariel..." and his face twisted as hot rage grabbed hold of him, he shucked the carbine back to full-auto and spun about, "And Kendra! You asswipe, Spike, you're _dead_!"

Spike had just gotten on his feet again and was shaking his head to clear it. His eyes kind of focused and he looked up to see the one-eyed man toting that lethal-looking rifle of his. He frowned, then shrugged, "Do your worst, lad, 'cause you see, I'm already dead."

Xander slapped the carbine to his shoulder, "And now you're gonna be DEADER!" and he unloaded full-bore.

Rapid-fire slugs ripped across the gap and railed into the lean vampire, ripping a staccato across his chest, perforating his chrome breastplate and shredding his duster. Then Xander raised his aim and finished unloading the magazine into Spike's face. Skin, bone and blood sprayed, Spike was rammed backwards into the wall and howled as he was pressed into it like under the grinding fist of a titan. And then it was over.

He gurgled but didn't fall, and his eyes, which had been miraculously spared, blinked dully then focused. His ruined mouth spit out slugs and shattered teeth and he straightened up, "Now... N-Now it's m-my turn."

Xander discharged the clip, slapped in his last one, "Nope. I'm taking another one." and he depressed the trigger again...

**End of Part II...**


	21. Chapter VII: Part III

_In the open air..._

The force of gravity governs everything we do and the physics of free-fall may seem remarkably simple to the untrained eye. But they're not. One does not just simply drop from Point A to Point B with an utter lack of interference in between, no, there are a near-infinite number of contributing factors. Like wind resistance, for example.

Physical laws state that in the absence of wind resistance an object, like say a limp body run through with their own stake, will fall with a velocity that increases 9.8 meters every second. Meaning Kendra was currently hurtling toward the rapidly rising Earth at a geometrically growing rate of 39.4 meters per second, and given her current aerodynamic configuration, i.e. arms and legs all akimbo and flapping, she would achieve a terminal velocity of about 56.7 m/s, or around 125 miles-per-hour.

_Meaning I have to go_ faster_, yay. Jeez, I really hate physics..._

So Ariel, currently arcing downwards at a 47 degree angle, tore off the remains of her flapping windbreaker, freeing it to the swirling winds, then slapped hands to her sides and locked her legs firmly together, pointed her now-bare toes. Her aerodynamic drag now reduced as much as it was going to be, she shifted her head into a new position and sent herself rocketing down to the left, towards the distant speck that was Kendra.

_Unless somebody else fell off that god-forsaken City of the Hawkmen, totally possible, which means I may have just committed suicide for nothing_, she scowled through clenched and streaming eyes and tilted her legs higher to narrow her trajectory. _As if life back in New York wasn't hard enough_-and then she closed enough on her target for identification-_Nope! That's her!_

Then the wounded Slayer vanished into the clouds and Ariel, white t-shirt and curly-blonde hair plastered to her body, jetted in after her.

Two long seconds passed...then...

Now one, the two women blasted free of the swirling white and the ground spread out below then, rising up to meet them at a dizzying pace. Ariel held Kendra tight against her, desperate to spare a hand to cover the woman's stomach wound, which was leaving behind a crimson stream of her own blood as they descended, but it was impossible, so she concentrated on what just might _be_ possible.

Like survival.

Her ability to unleash her pent-up power to increase or decrease her body's velocity was only good if she had a surface to repel from. The sky offered no such advantage, so until she was within at least three or so meters from the surface, there was nothing she could do but get them turned over. It wouldn't be easy but it wasn't like there was anything else to do up here. And it wouldn't be up for long. For once, she gave no thought to her intense fear of heights, there just wasn't time for it. Kendra needed her and that was that.

"I'm sorry." she whispered into Kendra's ear as she pulled her into a different position, despite the wordless cries of pain the Caribbean Slayer moaned as Ariel's twisting stretched the stomach wound, "It's the only way."

Hugging her legs tightly with her own, she let go with her left hand and for the longest second of her life she madly grabbed for Kendra's still flapping right arm, then she snagged it and yanked it back down, locked it in with the now full embrace. Now with them chest-to-chest and vaguely resembling the shape of a missile, Ariel held her breath and went for it, and prayed the transition wouldn't tear them apart. _Arms, don't fail me now..._

She bent her knees and threw back her feet.

Air screamed around them and then they were rotating, heads arcing upwards, feet flying downwards. Then they were in a standing position and Ariel hooked her legs back round Kendra's and they stopped turning. She looked down past the limp woman's shoulder and the brown wasteland was spreading fast, she had mere seconds now. _Wait for it, wait for it, you only get one shot at this and if you use too much or too little force they'll be mopping up your remains for half a mile, wait for it, wait_-"NOW!"

Her shout was the catalyst and brackish-pink energy exploded beneath her, crackled across the landscape, fusing sand into glass in it's rushing wake, there was an ear-popping CRACK! and-and-_and_ Ariel's bare feet touched down with the barest hint of resistance.

...

...for a drawn-out second she just stood there in the center of a meter-wide burn crater of her own creation, Kendra clasped tightly to her, then with a soft sigh she flopped over onto her back and fainted...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

"Easy now, don't rush, take it slow."

Xander's words filtered through the ocean roar cascading between Tara's ears. With sheer willpower she fought the vertigo trying to swallow her perceptions up like a whale sucks down krill. _Uhhhh, Adam?_ she gave in to Xander's ministrations and let him take over getting her to her feet. _He seems so much better at it then me, anyway..._

What had been a undulating haze of orange-lighted fog coalesced into the ruined Mission Bay and the witch stared about her in awe, as Xander shifted her arm to a better position around his shoulder, "Th-Thanks. Wow, what happened?"

"Oh, a little mayhem, a little societal collapse. You know, a usual Sunnydale Saturday night."

Random fires blazed, and half the catwalks were cooking as well under orange-yellow flames, most likely resulting from random plasma weapon shots. Finned demon corpses were everywhere and two thirds of the boxy transport ships were now half-exploded shells. Xander smiled meekly, "That was my idea. Once Ariel and Kendra started kicking serious butt, half the soldiers started taking cover by the ships to try and obtain better sniper positions." he slapped the carbine dangling by it's now empty ammo strap from his shoulder, "This baby made mincemeat of their fuel tanks, let me tell you."

"I can't believe we won." Tara looked round then frowned, "Where's the other two?"

He frowned sadly, "Spike overcame Kendra, I'm sorry. He stabbed her with her own stake and threw her out of the Bay."

Tara's eyes went wide and she stared at him in horror, "N-No..."

"Ariel went after her though, so don't count her out just yet."

"After her? What do you mean?"

His brow furrowed, "Uh... She's got these abilities...they..." he looked thoughtful for a second, "You know, I really can't say. There's all this pink light and crazy stuff happens, and then she's in a snowbank and not pizza'd all over 5th Avenue."

"You're not making any sense."

"Hey, you should see me on a bad day." he started forward, "We need to get out of here. Can you walk?"

She limped along beside him as he supported her, "Sort of. I think my ankle's broken." she raised a thin flaxen eyebrow, "This is a good day for you?"

"Yep. Just a week ago a vampire bat-woman tried to eviscerate me in a limo and the week before that I nearly got impaled trying to save a unicorn in a warehouse."

They reached the face-down Adam and paused for a moment. Together their gazes traveled up his demon/human/machined form to stop at the back of his head, where a crack in his titanium-lined skull was trickling greenish-red blood and piping greasy smoke. Tara licked her lips, "So, a unicorn tried to impale you with his horn? _That's_ different."

"Actually, I guy in a red velvet robe tried to impale me with a sword while I was trying to _save_ the unicorn. It's sort of complicated."

Her ears picked up a rising whining noise and she looked to the left, her eyes narrowed, "Tell me about it..."

He followed her gaze to where her black metal staff lay on the floor beside the downed catwalk. It's head was mashed in and the blue crystals veined along it's length were pulsing erratically, "There a problem?"

"The biggest. It's about to go critical. It's fusion-powered, you see. I sort of forgot Adam b-broke it, what with my ankle being fractured and ramming head-first into the elevators."

"Yeah, that can be distracting." he carefully released her and moved over to the staff, picked it up gingerly, "So, is there an override switch, or something like..." he trailed off as she shook her head. He looked toward the gaping end of the Bay, where the rectangle of darkening sky beckoned, "What happens if I just throw it out? What's the blast radius?"

"I dunno, perhaps three kilometers uncontained."

"Three _kilometers_?"

"Maybe four." she studied the movement of light within it, "We've got maybe two minutes."

Xander looked back and forth, "What about if we leave it in here?" then he looked back the way they'd come, "Or better yet..." and he grinned.

"What?" she demanded, but he was running off towards a line of cargo containers...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

"The life-signs of the entire Third Security Brigade just went dead!" shouted the demon manning the central console.

The Captain of Flying Fortress Twelve pulled his gaze from the row of floor-to-ceiling monitors displaying a pitched battle between Dark Legion forces and a brigade of vampire berserkers in the mountains of Mongolia and shuffled across the Command Deck in a slither of tentacles.

"The Third was assigned to assist Adam in the Mission Bay, were they not?"

The demon nodded, as his board fed him more data.

"I thought THE ONE evacuated the Bay then gave implicit orders that all feeds into and out were to be blocked so he could have absolute privacy while intercepting the escaped prisoners."

"Um, they were, every last one of them. But as you know, sir, all Brigade monitoring chips have a satellite relay back-up for battle stats, in case their mother ships are destroyed in combat. It's a fail-safe. And Satellite Nine just relayed the information through the network."

The Captain's mandibles twitched in annoyance, "And they're dead? All of them?"

"Every last one of them, Captain."

"Reestablish the feeds now." he waved a tentacle at the line of soldiers lining the back wall, "Go up to the Level Alpha and assess the situation, then report back to me."

The ten demons unslung their rifles and filed up before the closest elevator as their commander slithered closer to the central console. He was opening his maw to bark at him for being too slow in his duties when the lift pinged behind him. He heard the sound of the doors parting but instead of the sound of heavy boot-steps piling into the car, he heard a collected gasp of astonishment. He scowled with his three eyes and rotated around, ready to tear a strip off them for not following his commands, "Did you not _hear _me? Get moving or you will be executed before the hour is...up..."

He trailed off at the sight of the humming forklift sitting in the elevator, with Adam splayed across it's lifting bars, his one remaining eye staring vacantly back at him. A long black staff lay across his chest, blue light flashing from it in unison with a rising buzz that was making the air vibrate.

"That...that _can't_ be good..." the demon Captain muttered under his breath.

Then the room exploded.

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

"...the light...I can't see...the _usiku_...mama..._nisaidie tafadhali_..."

Ariel sat cross-legged on the sand a few feet from the crater she'd made, with Kendra's head in her lap. _I know it was more then a day since we arrived here, but it feels like just seconds ago I was holding Xander's head like this. Where does the time go?_

"...Tara, can you...see it.." Kendra's voice was raspy and her breathing was erratic. Ariel had bound her stomach as best she could with strips torn from the Slayer's jacket. Ariel had woken moments after fainting to her moaning and had done her best with what they had, but her worry was growing. It wasn't like there appeared to be a hospital out here in the middle of the desert. Hell, she didn't even know what State she was in, or even if they were still in America.

"Shhh, it's okay, everything's going to be alright." she murmured, stroked her forehead.

"...the night...it's so dark..._saa ngapi_, Zabuto? I must begin...my training..." she coughed hard and red foam dribbled from her lips. Ariel tried to hold her still as she convulsed upon the sands.

"Please don't die, Kendra, you've got to hold on, please don't die." her eyes were wet and she held the Slayer close to her chest.

Then, far above, a tremendous explosion sounded and she looked up startled.

High above the clouds seemed to roll back like curtains. They exposed a ring-shaped gap and in it the distant outline of the Flying Fortress was illuminated by a spreading sheath of blue-white flame which tore from it in wave-after-wave, as the saucer-shaped hovering platform seemed to implode in upon itself.

"Holy... Xander..." moaned Ariel as she stared up at the fantastic display, "Please, let him have somehow gotten off first..."

The fire rolled back and the Fortress became a pinpoint of blinding light. It strobed once, twice, then there was a second roar that seemed to grow and grow, and Ariel's eyes saucered, "Oh crap!"

She gripped Kendra and climbed to her feet, hitched the larger woman over her shoulder and for once thanked fate for making her half-demon so that she had the strength to do this, then took off at a limping jog across the desert. High above, a distant whistling current began to sound, and it started cycling up toward a metallic scream.

"..._unakwenda wapi_...won't you...won't you stay with me?" mumbled Kendra behind Ariel's head as she hoofed it up over a dune then half-stumbled, half-ran down the other side.

_Swahili, she's speaking Swahili, hey, how'd I know that?_ her mind spat out as she fought not to trip as she raced amongst the rising spurs of glossy-black stone. _That's a good thing to know, just in case I end up in the her heaven after the Fortress squashes us flat._ she grimaced and tried to increase her speed, "Aw, who am I kidding? Mom always told me I was going to Hell, and she's probably right." _Damn, I hate that bit_-she clambered to a halt as with a roar of blue thrusters a transport ship landed three meters in front of her.

She gaped and nearly fell over. It spun about until the right side was to them, and Tara waved down at her from the tinted cockpit glass. There was a hydraulic hum and the side door slid back, spilling light out into the night and over them. Xander leaned out with a grin, "Hey, baby, lookin for a date?"

"If you got the money, I got the time." Ariel grinned back...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

The Flying Fortress struck Forth Worth, Texas with a noise that could be heard across three State lines, and an impact that shook the earth for another two more.

Three seconds after it's half-kilometer wide girth impacted, it's own fusion reactor detonated, joining the continuing chain-reaction of Tara's staff, and together they transformed a third of the former Southern State into an aquamarine firestorm that would blaze for more then a week. There would be no survivors, no miraculously-escaped soldiers to tell the tale, just a blackened blast crater ten kilometers wide that over the coming decades would slowly fill up with water from the coming torrential rainstorms caused by the fusion fallout.

It would become a pond, then a vast lake, dotted with spiraling shards of twisted black metal poking their angry fingers skyward, as if they were the Fortress's hands clawing up from it's Lone Star grave to reach for the cloud-borne haunts of it's youth. Those that came centuries later to live around it's fertile shores called it the Xander Basin, based upon the stories that surrounded it's supposed fiery creation. But the actual truth by then, like all great truths, had long ceased to be history and now was just legend, and so to them it was just an endless blue-green spread of wildlife-rich water surrounded by a forest of thickening pine.

Which was just how it's legendary one-eyed creator would have liked it...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Faith was jarred awake as the engine car came to stop, shuddering beneath her curled body as it's wheels rattled to a halt on rusty rails. She propped herself up on her elbows and blinked the sleep from her eyes, as the exit doors slid back with a whoosh of air. Blinding light streamed in and a lone figure was silhouetted in the portal. There was a long moment of silence, then

"What, are you just going to lie there?" snorted a familiar voice in mock-annoyance, "We're off saving the world and you're hidden away taking a nap. Typical..."

"Xander!" she lept to her feet and ran out, grasped him by the shoulders. He gaped as she seemed about to hug him, then she recovered and let go, stepped back a step.

"Um...hey."

"Hey yourself." he grinned and looked her up and down, "Wow, I take it back, you look like you went three rounds with Oscar De La Hoya."

There was a small crowd behind him and Ariel stepped from it and joined them, "Hi, Faith. You took your good time getting here."

The Slayer raised an eyebrow and smoothed down her blood-stained jean-jacket, "Where's here, exactly?"

"Silver City," explained Xander, "last bastion of humanity on this ball of mud we've decided to call Earth-Two."

Tara, supporting herself with a staff of carved wood, limped forward as Faith looked about her, eyes widening, "Earth-Two?" the witch frowned as she came to a stop and took the weight off of her heavily bandaged foot, "I don't think so."

Xander shook his head adamantly, "Nope, we're Earth-One, I called it."

"What? Why do you get to be Earth-One and we're stuck with Earth-Two?"

"Well, we existed first, and I was part of calling you into existence in the first place-"

"And thank you for _that_."

"-and I called it, didn't you hear me? Hah! Earth-One, that's us!"

Ariel sighed and took his arm, "Ignore him. Back home we try and keep him sedated, lest he injure himself."

"Uh-huh." he nodded, "I have my own crash helmet and padded room."

Tara smiled, "I'll just bet you do. I'd like to see that some time."

"What, the padded room?"

"No, your home. It's sort of nice to know there's still an intact Earth out there, where none of this war ever happened."

"You're welcome to visit any time you like." said Xander, "I'll give you my cell number, you can ring me up, we'll do the town."

Faith stared in awe.

They stood in the shadow of a towering cliff of grey rock, from which her subway car had exited from a tunnel shaped into it's base. From this point a vast valley spread out before them, ending nearly four kilometers distant at another wall of rock, veined with long lines of glistening silver ore, most likely where the settlement got it's name. In this vertical rise a military complex rose, carved into the rock itself, and it cast a noon-day shadow across the valley floor in between. On this a town rose, surrounded by houses and spreading fields of green crops and fallow earth. In the distance cows mooed and horses whinnied, while children chased and ran in the sparkling sunlight.

"How can this place even exist?" the Slayer asked, "I thought Adam and the Vampire Underground held sway over the entire planet."

"Not here." said Tara, "It's protected by a powerful glamour that even works on the satellite network continually searching the earth for any signs of humanity. Though maybe now the Dark Legion isn't looking anymore, what with Adam buried under a million tons of debris."

"Huh? How's that?"

"Oh, while you were off Rip Van Winkling we were busy saving the world, remember." Xander turned and set off, "Come on, we'll tell you all about it at the barbecue."

Faith looked to Ariel, "What, did you bring the whole establishment to it's knees while I was running for my life?"

"Um...well, sort of..."

"Yeesh, talk about not pulling my own weight."

"Yeah, we've been meaning to have a sit-down about that." Ariel winked, "You know, discuss your future, or lack there of, with our organization."

"Bite me, blondie." she snorted.

"You first. Race you to the hotdogs." and she turned and jogged off after the retreating Xander.

Tara chuckled and moved to follow, Faith fell in step beside her, "Hey, where's Kendra?"

"In our hospital's recovery ward. She spent the night on a surgical table."

"She okay?"

The witch nodded, "She will be, Spike did her pretty bad, but you Slayers are pretty resilient. She should be up and around in another few days."

"Cool." Faith was relieved, and in a strange way buoyed by the thought that her predecessor's counterpart would continue in the land of the living. _Maybe after I'm gone there'll be another Faith out there in some other dimension, growing old and havin grandkids, a Faith who was never cursed with being Chosen, on a world where vampires are just a badly over-used pop culture reference._

_That would be sorta cool..._

She looked back to Tara, "By the way, your pal Solomon, sorry, but he got ate by a vampire named Trick."

"Yeah, I wondered about him. I didn't know him very well, but he was well-liked by the other Irregulars."

"Well, tell'em he went down fighting vamps, and took out like ten of them before the end, 'cause he did. He was a cool guy."

"I will. Trick, I've heard of him. He works for the leader of the Vampire Underground."

Faith winced at the memory, "Let me guess, a really big pure-blooded snake demon."

"That would be him." Tara frowned, "Adam may be gone, but the war is far from over. There's still them to deal with, and many others."

Faith shrugged, "Hey, Rome wasn't built in a day, or so they say."

"Nope, it sure wasn't. You know, I'll be sad to see you three go, you've been alot of help."

"Oh, we can go home?"

Tara nodded, "Xander's Initiative multiscanner provided me with the pertinent data. I've already drawn up a diagram for the power circle, you guys leave this afternoon."

_Home, I'd wondered if I'd live to see it again_, Faith pursed her lips, _I guess I'll have to pay that Blockbuster late-fee after all..._

"And we don't even need the blood of a Slayer to complete it," finished Tara, "my spare staff should be more then enough of a catalyst."

"Wicked. Hey, I gotta question about that subway set-up of yours, seeing how it predates the split between our worlds, if Xander's right about it happening just five years ago..." then her eyes narrowed, "Wait, what the hell did you just say! _Slayer's_ blood?"

And Tara nodded.

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Not there, but here..._

With a blast of red-gold energy that shockwaved away from them, the trio materialized on the grey concrete expanse of the Gothic Arch. For a long moment there was absolute silence, then the winds rushed back in to fill the vacuum and Faith caught hold of Harris before he was blasted from their perch to fall to his death below in the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Xander appreciated the assistance and as a group they made their way to the closest utility ladder, "The lady delivered, I'll give her that."

"That's one powerful witch, I agree." Ariel shivered in the April chill and stared off across the vista of the New York skyline, "She put us right back to the spot we left, I wish I could thank her."

"Oh, I'm sure she knows." said Faith, "And anyway, who knows, we may see her again, you never know. Not that I'd ever want to go back to that place."

"I dunno, Silver City was sort of cool, in a Green Acres sort of way." Xander gripped the ladder and made to swing onto it. But Faith caught his arm and scowled.

"Not gonna happen, pal. Ladies first, 'member?"

He grinned sheepishly, "Oh yeah, right. In all the interdimensional traveling I forgot."

Ariel raised an eyebrow, "Forgot what?" she looked back-and-forth between them, "What's he talking about?"

"Nuthin." replied Faith, and she gestured for the blonde to go first, "Let's get going, it's dangerous up here. We got room service to order up and the Initiative to hunt down and ass-kick."

"Sure, whatever." and she disappeared down the ladder. Faith followed after her a moment later.

Xander remained on the arch for a moment, a firm grip on the top rung to steady himself against the howling winds. He looked out over the harbor and into the dipping horizon, then back to the shinning lights of the energized metropolis he now called home.

"Nobody's nuking this place, not ever, not if I have anything to say about it." he swore silently to the rising darkness, "No matter what, _this_ Earth belongs to me, and heaven-help the psycho who gets in my way."

And without another word, he swung onto the ladder and began his descent...

**End of Chapter VII...**


	22. Chapter VIII: Part I

**SLAYERS: THREE OF A KIND**

**Chapter VIII - Luck of the Draw**

_Mid-morning, just exiting the Holland Tunnel into lower Manhattan..._

The nondescript grey van left the third lane of traffic and turned left onto West Street, then headed up the wide and tree-lined boulevard toward Prince.

In the front cockpit of the vehicle, behind the tinted windshield, the young Private hunched over the wheel, grateful for the van's air conditioning, seeing as he was dressed in full grey-black urban camouflage fatigues, complete with goggled helmet and heavy flack vest. _That's it, I can't take it anymore, still twenty minutes to go until the Complex, I'm taking the head gear off til then. _ As he drove the van down the right-side lane he let go of the wheel with his right hand and popped the chin strap. With a sigh of relief he dumped the heavy helmet onto the empty passenger seat.

"Heh, that's better." he grinned and considered even turning the radio on. _I could put the volume on real low and they'd never hear it in the back. Yeah, what do they say? Right, if you're going to walk a tightrope, you might as well do it without a net..._

He reached for the center of the dash's console, but his fingers froze as the foot-wide plasma screen set into it's base lit-up, displaying the triangular Initiative icon. He nearly coughed up a lung as he lunged for his discarded helmet. The image switched and revealed the hooded face of the leader, the Private slammed the head-guard down on his skull and saluted briskly, "Sir! Good morning!"

"_Private._" came the reply.

"_...well, report._" was the command a moment later.

"What? Oh! Sorry, sir, of course. We have just entered the city, having left the Holland Tunnel three and a half minutes ago, and are just now heading down Prince Street toward Broadway."

"_I don't give a fig about your route, boy, is that what you think I called for? To see what you're passing on the way, so you can pick up my prescription at the apothecary?_"

"Uh...we can stop, if you need us to-"

"_No! Don't you know sarcasm when you hear it?_"

"Um...no sir, I don't."

"_Brainless jarhead, I can't believe I have to deal with you people on a daily basis. Best-of-the-best? Hardly..._" the hooded man sighed and leaned closer to the screen, "_Tell me about...your acquisitions. You still have them, of course._"

"Affirmative, sir. They are strapped down, shackled and sedated in the rear, as per your orders. Lieutenant Marquette and Private Dano are back there with them now."

"_Check on them then, Private, one can never be too careful._"

"No problem." and keeping one eye on the road, he reached behind him and rapped on the divider.

The slot slid back and he called over his shoulder, "The leader is on the com, he wants an update on the status of the prisoners."

"They're, uh, fine." came the muted response, as a honking taxi roared past in the opposite lane, "Hey, do you have the key to the shackles? I need to make an adjustment to their bindings."

He grinned down at the screen and fished with his free hand under his vest, came up with the key, "See, sir? Everythings five-by-five." and he handed it through the slot.

"_Who was that?_" demanded the man on the screen, "_It wasn't Lt. Marquette, I know his voice._"

"It was...it..." the Private's brow furrowed for a moment, "Uh...it was..." there came a loud _clang!_ from the back and the van shook hard. The soldier went white and spun the wheel hard to the right.

"_WHAT IS HAPPENING?_" roared the screen, then the van drove onto the sidewalk, clipped a telephone-pole, decapitated a fire hydrant, and finished by ramming through the front of a deli in a crash of glass, spraying water and brick in all directions.

The Private kicked open the door a moment later, half fell out, then scrambled in the foaming liquid spreading around his ankles. Finally steady, he dashed around the side of the van to the back. The rear doors gaped wide, the lock kicked to pieces from the inside. Lying on the floor of the van were two bruised and silent soldiers dressed in street-camo like he was, with a twisted mix of straps and shackles draped across their bodies.

"Oh crap..." he turned around fast and stared out past the geysering hydrant desperately, his gaze locking onto a pair of distant retreating figures already five blocks away. One of them appeared to be limping and was supported by the other. As the Private's hip radio crackled to angry life the two fugitives dodged into a side alleyway and disappeared without looking back.

"_Soldier! Answer me! What the hell is going on!_"

He unclipped the black radio and raised it to his lips, "Um, I think we have a situation, sir. The two Slayers have escaped. Repeat, Slayers 014 and 033 are loose and in the city..."

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Massachusetts General Hospital, May 1998..._

One-after-another, the three ambulances squealed to a halt, sirens blaring into the midnight air, and the glass doors of the Emergency Room shot back as Nurses and Interns charged forward to meet the gurneys rolling out the back of the white wagons.

The flow of wounded from a nine car pile-up on the I-90, east of Exit 24, was just beginning, and the triage would continue until morning. Inside, doctors jogged from patient to patient, seeing to those most in need first, while the absolved paramedics piled back into their vehicles with fresh supplies and headed back for the next load of victims. All was chaos on the ground floor of MGH.

But two levels below, the Morgue was quiet as a tomb.

It had been for hours now, once it's attendants had gone off-duty and locked the stainless-steel chamber up tight. Those inside lay motionless, as the dead tend to do, and the double doors were safely bolted shut, keeping all who didn't belong out. Unless they had a lock-pick, that is...

With a scratchy-click, the bolt slid back. A soft push creeked the doors inwards, spilling the beams from a pair of flashlights into the stretched-out room. Marion Louise Armitage straightened up and eyed her young charge critically, "You weren't even paying attention, were you, young lady."

Faith puffed out a breath and rolled her eyes, popped the gum she was chewing industrially. The sixteen year-old folded arms across the front of her sleeveless 'Lewinsky Was Framed!' t-shirt, leaned against the door-jam, "What, you picked the lock, like, who cares? What, you want a medal, or a chest to pin it on?"

Her Watcher straightened up and smoothed down the pleats of her long tartan skirts, then returned the slim metal rod to the pocket of her beige overcoat, "One would think after having read 'Gelson's Foray Into Peculation' you would be interested in seeing some of the methods being employed, hmmm?"

"Like I need'em anyway. When I become the Slayer-"

"If, you mean."

The teenager shook her head in annoyance and followed her tutor into the morgue, "Whatever. Okay, _if_ I become the Slayer, then don't I get super-strength along with the mega-dexterity?"

Marion opened her satchel and withdrew a bundle wrapped in dark velvet, looked about her amongst the rows of scratched silver operating tables, "Yes, your physical power will be greatly enhanced, as well as your recuperative abilities, and your other senses."

"Then I won't need to Remington Steele my way into the places I need to patrol. I can just kick open the door." Faith grinned at the thought, "Heh, _any_ door..."

The older women turned back and shot her the evil-eye, evaporating Faith's self-serving smile and the dreams of free shopping sprees along with it, "That will be enough of _that_. The point of knowing such techniques is to move with stealth, to remain undiscovered."

"Oh yeah, that..." Faith puffed out her breath and stuffed hands in the pockets of her cotton-capris, "Right, don't say it again, please don't. I think I'll have an aneurysm if you do-"

"The Slayer's greatest gift is that she works without the knowledge of the people around her." quoted Marion as she unwrapped her bundle to reveal three occult objects, "She alone must stand against the forces of darkness and her advantage would vanish, everything she does would be for naught, if-"

"-if she were discovered." completed Faith, boredom once again her watchword, "Right, okay, yeah-yeah." she rolled her eyes, "Next time I'll watch you pick the lock, promise."

With soft clicks Marion set the objects down on an empty table, "No, next time _you_ will be the one performing the locksmithing."

"What? Yo, I don't even know _how_-"

"Then you will have to re-read 'Gelson's Foray', now won't you, hmmm?"

"No-no, not gonna happen. I didn't sign onto this lamo spook mission to read the same book twice. Jeez, they don't even make ya do that in _real _school."

Marion returned the wrap to her leather hip bag and frowned, "Perhaps then I should return you to public school, if this 'lamo spook mission' is no longer to your liking."

Faith's eyes went wide and she shook her head vehemently, "No! I was just joshin ya, honest! No need for that, I'm like'n the whole home-schoolin gig, no probs. I'll re-read the book, start it soon as we get back to the motel." _Internally she blanched, No friggin way am I goin back to real school, nota chance. 'Cause that means back to livin with the fam, with all the crappy food and beatings you can swallow, not ta mention havin to put up with_-

"Excellent, excellent." Marion snapped her back to reality, "Now, shall we commence the lesson?"

She looked back the way they'd come, "Uh, the door wasn't the lesson? What, now there's a second one? Yeesh..."

"Faith." Marion's tone was humorless, and the Potential sighed and moved to the other side of the surgical table, tried to look interested.

"All right now, name for me these three items."

Faith cocked her head, "Huh? You're kidding."

"I never jest, my dear. Please, name them."

"O-kay...cross, bottle of holy water, stake." she tapped each implement with her index finger as she said their name, "Wow, do I get a gold star? That was a _tough_ lesson."

"It's not over yet. Now, what are their significance in relation to this room?"

"Um...I use'em to Slay. Vampires. Slaying vampires. This is one of the places I patrol."

"Correct. The local morgue or morgues are where the Slayer sometimes gets first crack at ending a vampire's career of carnage before it can even begin."

"Is that why you dragged me here when I coulda gone to Johnny Lassiter's party? I thought cemeteries were where the Slayer should be spending most nights. Ya know, waitin for the undead to arise and all that dusty crap. You told me that's what that Betty person does."

"Buffy."

"Right, Buffy, yeah, whatever. Hey, when am I gonna get to go to Sunnydale and meet her?"

"Never. No Potential ever meets the current Slayer. It is forbidden."

"What? Why not? Shouldn't I eventually be learning from her? Ya know, doin the apprentice thing?"

"No. That is not how it's done. You are trained by your Watcher in the ways of the Chosen, and then if and when you are deemed worthy, and she dies, you become the next Slayer in her place."

Faith turned away frowning and leaned over a nearby corpse, "Doesn't seem a smart way to do things. I mean, Bessie's the real-deal, the hostess-with-the-mostest. So wouldn't I be benefit'n from her, like, good example?" she pulled back the sheet, wrinkled her nose in distaste at the pale and mottled face there, "Yuck! Ya know, I never could work in a place like this, it's just way too gross. I guess Slaying is my true calling after all. I guess I'd just better wait for this Bonnie chick to up-chuck and die."

The Watcher grimaced, "How vulgar. And again, her name is Buffy, not Betty, Bessie or Bonnie. Actually, just as a point of interest, it is not a confirmed fact that Buffy is the Slayer whose death will bring about the next in the line of Chosen. The Council currently entertains a theory that Kendra is the true source of the legacy now."

Her student turned back, leaned against the table behind her and dug the toe of her leather boot into the tiled floor, "Oh yeah, forgot about her. Hey, is she still in the Caribbean?" _That would be so cool! Slayin vamps in the sunny shade while sippin fruit drinks and goin surfin. Maybe Kendra's the one I should go visit..._

"Actually, I have heard through the Council's grape-vine that she is..." she trailed off and scowled at her young charge, "Humph, an attempt to distract me, Faith? How droll. That will be quite enough of _that_, young miss. This is not a 'chat session', this is study. Now, attend me while I continue the lesson."

Faith frowned, "Hey, I didn't do it on purpose. I was just, like, curious, ya know? Anyway, I thought you said most vamps take twenty-four to thirty-six hours to turn. That would put'em in their grave when they rise, not in their autopsy. Otherwise there would be a real high mortality rate amongst coroners, dontcha think?"

Marion picked up the bottle of holy water and checked it's stopper, "Yes, well, that is true for the most part. But, on occasion, there is a delay in finding the body. Or, even rarer, but it still can happen, a vampire rises much faster then usual." Behind Faith, the corpse jerked silently.

"Really?" asked the girl, "How come?"

"Some say it can be due to the amount of Sire's blood ingested during the turning. While there are other schools of thought which suggest the victim's own degree of personal darkness can be a motivating factor."

"Degree of...of...huh?"

Marion put down the bottle and picked up the heavy steel cross, "If the subject felt they had been wronged by another, prior to termination, then perhaps the urge to be revenged, fueled by the fact that they no longer had a mitigating soul to council their psyche, might drive them through the conversion much faster then is the norm."

"Huh? Can you, um, repeat that?"

"Which part?"

"Uh, everything after 'If the subject', heh..."

Marion shook her head in annoyance, "Really, you must try harder to pay attention and not allow yourself to be distracted by-FAITH!"

The girl nearly jumped out of her skin and before she could recover cold hands grasped her shoulders and yanked her backwards off her feet. The vampire kicked off the sheet and growled in hungry fury, clasped the squirming brunette to his naked chest, then bent to bite her neck.

But he howled in agony as the Watcher rushed up to him and pressed the cross to side of his face. He hissed wildly and tossed the girl viciously away to crash hard into the far wall, then jumped free of the table and smashed the cross away from him, turned on the older woman.

Marion instantly dropped the cross and moved into a defensive position, hands splayed and ready, feet wide apart and bracing. She met his first slash neatly, parried him back and spun, delivered a hard chop to his neck. He fell to his knees startled and she loomed over him, grinning darkly.

"You are newly Risen and slow, but still but one of your kind. I on the other hand am well trained in the arts of dispatching your like." she kicked him onto his back and turned, caught up the stake, raised it two-handed, "You, fiend, have no chance against me."

"No..." he replied in a rasp, "...no, _I_ don't. But we _do_..."

Armitage hesitated, "...We?"

And on either side of her the shrouded corpses sat up. The second and third vampires tore off their sheets and turned to bear on the English matron. She blinked and paled, began to back-up, "Well now, this is an interesting turn of events."

"Isn't it now." said the vampire she'd downed, as he climbed to his feet and grinned. His two brothers, as naked as he was, and equally vamped out in bulging foreheads, yellow eyes and fangs, slid off their tables and joined him in his hungry glower at the Watcher.

"I'm warning you, you are making a grave mistake. I am not to be trifled with."

He took a step forward, "Oh, I disagree. You _are_ to be trifled with. In fact, I am going to start with your neck, trifle it open, while my two friends here trifle your arms and legs. Trifle them right off your _body_ while you scream and scream and-" hands slapped to sides of his head from behind and twisted his neck hard with a crunch of cartilage, "-scream?"

POW! he detonated into a swirling cloud of iridescent brown dust. The other two vampires gawked in horror as Faith stepped forward between them, taking his place in their line, "I may have just got tossed into a brick wall head-first, but ya know what? I'm feelin _much_ better now." and she caught them by the hair and knocked their heads together with a _crack_, slapped her hands to the either table-top and thrust herself backwards, kicked high with both feet and sent them bowling over in opposite directions.

She spun in mid-air, landed in a crouch with a grin, "And ya know what? I'm actually feelin better then I've ever felt before in my whole stinkin life!"

The two vamps growled as one and jumped to their feet. One grabbed his table and tore it free from the floor, held it over him to bash the crouched girl's head in, while the other leapt up onto his own table, nailed hands twisted like talons to slash down at Faith.

Marion stared in shock at her charge, mouth opening and closing in wondrous bafflement. _It cannot be...can it?_

The right-side vamp hurled the table down at the crouching Faith. She launched herself forward, somersaulting out of the way by inches as it clanged down on the tiles and smashed to pieces, then she rose up in a blur and snatched the stake from her Watcher's limp fingers, "Thanks muchly, Mary!" then she spun back round and sprang back into the fray.

She landed on the table before the third vampire, kicked the second back as he hissed and grabbed for her ankles, then parried an attempt by the one before her to gouge out her eyes. She slammed an upper-cut into his jaw, snapping his head back, then bent double and slammed a backwards kick into his chest, sending him flying to deflect off the far wall. With a crash he landed face-first on a tray of surgical tools. It crumpled and he crashed to the floor with a yell of pain, an uneven row of scalpels sticking out of his face and neck.

The other vampire growled and sprang, landed on the table behind Faith, lunged for her. She ducked and dropped to her haunches, whipped the stake up and reversed it in her grip, drove it downwards into the top of his left foot. He screamed and she yanked it free, rose up before him and slapped his waving hands away, rammed it into his chest. He tumbled backwards away from her, twisted in the air towards the gawking Marion, then exploded into dust, spraying across the Watcher in a brown fog.

She coughed and gagged, waved the grit away from her. Faith grinned, "That second-hand smoke can be a real bitch, don't ya think?" then she kicked off backwards into a smooth somersault, landed behind the sputtering vampire clawing at the blades sticking out of his face, and brought a solid boot down on his chest, ramming him into the cold floor.

"Here, let me help you with that." she reached down and yanked a pair of the blades free of his face with a spray of blood. He screamed and jerked, she whipped the scalpels down like throwing knives, they spun through the air and impaled through either of his palms, pinning him spread-eagle to the tiles.

She stepped free of him, picked up a bone saw from a table beside her, turned back and brought it down with a meaty crunch on his neck. There was the roar of dust and the vampire was gone. She rose up and turned back to her Watcher who was brushing the dirt from her skirts. Marion stopped and looked across the morgue at her, "I...I guess the lesson is over." she smiled faintly and let the enormity of what had just taken place start to sink in, "How does it feel to be Chosen?"

And Faith the Vampire Slayer grinned ear-to-ear, "Oh, five-by-five, Mary, five-be-five..."

**End of Part I...**


	23. Chapter VIII: Part II

_Present day, back in New York City..._

With a ding! the gilded double doors slid back and twenty-two year-old Faith, her long dark hair and denim clothing drenched, exited the elevator and crossed into the plush ninth-floor hallway of the Amsterdam Court Hotel, followed by her two partners in crime. She reached up and caught hold of her long stringy locks and wrung them out as she lurched down the mutely-lit corridor. _Yugh, I feel like pounded crap. The last thing I ain't is five-by-five, let me tell ya..._

Behind her, just as soaked and moving even slower, Xander glanced side-long at the semi-drowned blonde beside him. She was visibly shivering, "I wish you'd of let me give you my jacket." he said morosely, "I mean, jeez, Ari, walking twenty blocks in only a t-shirt when it's raining?" guilt pulsed within his gut.

"I d-didn't need it." Ariel stammered, "I t-told you, the c-cold doesn't affect me like it d-d-does you."

"D-D-Does you?" mimicked Faith without looking back, "Wow, you're right, it sure doesn't." and she rolled her eyes.

Ariel stopped at the door and folded arms across her chest, "J-Just open it and th-then I can get in the warm sh-sh-sh-"

"Shower." finished Faith and she dug in her jeans pocket. Then frowned and began to search _all_ her pockets. She scowled, "Damn, must have dropped it back in Topeka." she stared narrowly at the solid portal into Suite 907, then gave in and swung back her foot, "I'll just kick it in-"

Ariel caught her arm, "Ah, no you won't. I like this Hotel and I'd prefer to have the option of staying here again."

"We've been back on Earth-One for like three hours now." Xander said darkly to Faith, "And just now you realize you've lost your key?"

The Slayer lowered her boot and shrugged, pointed at the dripping Succubus, "Hey, she was the one who lost our cab fare."

"It was in my windbreaker, which I had to jettison half a mile above the Earth in order to save Kendra. So _sue_ me."

"Whatever. Look, I'm just gonna break the lock, I've done it before." and she reached for the knob. But Ariel caught her arm again.

"Wait. Doesn't Xander have a spare key?"

"Right." Faith nodded, looked at Xander's eye-patch, "I forgot. And so did he it seems."

Their pseudo leader blinked, "I do? Oh _right_, I do!" and he turned away for a second, dug under his patch, then turned back with a key. But he hesitated, "Hey! How'd you know it was under there?"

The two women diverted their gazes and made no reply. He frowned, then slid the spare into the lock and turned, "You know, on second thought, don't tell me." he pushed open the door and stepped inside.

And froze.

So did the four people currently engaging in group sex on the hotel room's leather couch.

Xander grinned in deep embarrassment, looked to the door, "The suite number looks right, so..."

Faith and Ariel pushed passed him, "Would ya get outa the way." snapped the Slayer, then she saw what he saw and stopped dead, "Whoa..."

Ariel blinked, looked about the living room, "Hey, that guy has a camera."

"And that girl with the spray bottle just might be a fluffer." suggested Faith.

"Get out!" shouted the woman in the middle on the couch. Xander and Ariel backed up fast.

Faith did the opposite, she crossed the living room and pushed into the bathroom, ignored the fact that it had been turned into a make-shift make-up studio, and just popped up the lid of the toilet tank.

"Yep! This is our suite." and she fished out a fat zip-lock bag. She dried it on a towel, then stuffed the transparent sack of hundred dollar bills into her jean-jacket.

"No!" shouted the director, "It's our room!" he put down his camera and headed for the phone, "I'm going to call Security."

"Really? You are?" asked Faith sardonically as she passed him on the way back out, "Somehow I doubt that."

He scowled, then she stopped by the couch and snagged the wide-brimmed bush hat off the head of the Asian woman with red fingernails, "I thought that looked familiar."

"Hey! I found that under the bed in the second bedroom, it's mine-" Faith shot her a look as she looped the chin cord down over her head and under her hair. The woman blanched and shrunk back, "-but it's all yours, sure, no problem." she waved surrender, nearly losing her balance in the process.

Faith turned away and headed out the door, slamming it shut behind her. Xander and Ariel were standing in the hallway, looking pale. She headed for the elevator, "Come on, I'm gonna break the legs of the Reservations guy."

The two fell in step behind her. Ariel glanced at Xander, her cheeks all blushed, "Um...I think they were making pornography in there."

"Ya think?" he snapped.

She frowned, "You don't have to be mean about it. But I don't get it, we were only in that parallel dimension and away from here for like twenty-four hours..."

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

"...five weeks? Five _weeks_?" Ariel said in disbelief as she and Xander sat on a bus shelter bench across the street from the hotel, both finally starting to dry under the mid-morning sun. At least the rain had stopped pouring, a bonus since three security guards had hustled them out of the Amsterdam after Faith had tried to strangle the luxury hotel's concierge, "But it only seemed like a day passed back in Tara's world, I just don't get it."

Xander read from the New York Times he'd bought from a newstand, using the last of his pocket change. In front of them pedestrians streamed by in both directions, along West 50th Street's wide sidewalk. He changed the page and found the local news section, "Forty magazines and nine newspapers can't all lie. Face facts, our day-trip to the flip-side took up more then a month here in this reality. Get over it."

Ariel pushed back her frizzing curly hair and tried to focus her breathing, "Get over it? Get over it..." she moaned, "But all our stuff, our money, our clothes-_my_ clothes, dammit! I had like three suitcases and nine garment bags!"

"All donated to Good Will two weeks ago, except for that one bag of Faith's in the Lost and Found. It must have been too heavy for them to lift into the donation truck, good thing she locked it." he changed the page again, "Ari, look at it as a donation to those less fortunate. A sort of silver lining, i.e. you did a good deed. Not on purpose, sure, but still a good deed."

"Xander, your authentic phaser-II prop."

His hands twitched on the paper and a vein pulsed on his forehead. Then he swallowed and exhaled slowly, "A sacrifice, but worth it considering we helped bring down Earth-Two's Adam." the image of the Flying Fortress slamming into Forth Worth misted across his mind's eye and he decided the price was really well worth it.

"So it's May now?" the blonde asked, at last giving in to reality.

"Late May, actually." he frowned at the Time's movie listings, "Darn, I missed the premiere of 'Kill Bill 2'. That blows."

"I'm sure it's still playing somewhere. We weren't gone a whole year, remember, just a month or so."

"Yeah, well, it won't be the same. I'll just wait for DVD."

Ariel blinked, "Aw crap, and Survivor! I missed the finale! And the Reunion. That's the best part, seeing them with actual body-fat again. Jeez, I wonder who won?"

Xander flipped back to the Entertainment section, pulled out a page and handed it to her, "There's an article on it."

She took it and read quickly, "No way, _they_ won? I don't believe it."

"Believe it."

She balled up the page angrily and bifted it into a nearby trash bin, "But this doesn't make sense. Sure, in some demon dimensions time passes at vastly different rates. But we went into a parallel one, where a single split in the timeline took place. There shouldn't have been any temporal effects."

"The transition."

She looked at him, "Huh?"

"Back when that Initiative guy sent us traveling, when we were between worlds."

Her eyes lit-up with sudden understanding, "Time in transition, it ran differently. Wow, is that what you think?"

"Yep. Or, that this isn't our Earth either, that we've slipped into yet another parallel one. And we'll never get home, just keep wandering from world-to-world, trying to get back-ouch!" she was digging fingernails into his arm.

He pried them off and scowled, "I was only joking, yeesh! This is our world, Tara's spell was dead-on I'm sure, okay?"

"Yeah, I know." she replied, her voice a near-whisper. A chill shot up Xander's spine and he realized she was staring across the street and down a block, her eyes wide and alert. He followed her gaze and then went wide-eye himself.

"Holy crap..."

In the protruding alley-way between two high-rises, amongst the shadows, a line of blood-red eyes stared out at the pedestrians obliviously passing, while shafts of grey-yellow sunlight flashed across drooling muzzles. Curves in the darkness suggested coiled muscles and swishing tails. And they were larger, much larger, then the run-of-the-mill NYC stray dog.

Xander made the connection fast, "Those look like the wolf-thing you say attacked you back in Club Odessa."

Ariel nodded slowly, "Yeah...they do..."

_One-two-three-four-five...there's five of them..._ Xander counted off mentally, _And we've got no weapons and no Faith and it's mid-morning. They must be keeping to the shadows, and that's if in this form they are still susceptible to sunlight. Jeez, what if they're not? Then the Big Apple is in for a whole mess of trouble, that's for_ damn _sure..._

He reached into his jacket for the multiscanner, "Do you think they've spotted us?"

Ariel shook her head, "No, I don't think so. I think they're just...looking around..." _I guess Mother's been busy while I've been gone...maybe I should tell Xander and Faith about her-_

"Whatcha lookin at?" their gazes wrenched away from the alley with a start and focused on Faith who was now standing beside their bench.

"A pack of Oranak night-wolves, over there!" hissed Xander, pointing past her.

She looked toward the alley and frowned, "I don't see anything. You guys screwin around?"

The two looked back, but the wolf-hybrids were gone.

Xander stood and raised his Initiative device, turned it on, then focused the sensors on the shadows. But he got nothing. It was tuned for Slayer activity right now and nothing more, so with the pack gone he'd missed his chance to record their protein marker.

_Damn..._

He lowered the scanner. _And come to think of it, we've missed out on five weeks of searching for Slayers here in New York. Giles is gonna fire me, I just know it, if he hasn't already given Faith and me up for dead. The multiscanner can only track new readings of Slayer activity, after all. Double-damn..._

From what he'd been able to determine, the scanning device only picked up on Slayer traces when they'd actually been using their abilities. When they were acting normal it registered nothing, making it next to useless in their current situation. He looked back to Faith, who seemed energized by something.

"Where'd you go, anyway? You said you'd only be a sec."

"I think I've solved our homeless problem."

He raised an eye-brow, "Oh? And how might you have done that in just fifteen minutes? This doesn't involve me standing on a street corner with my shirt open, does it? 'Cause I saw 'Urban Cowboy' on Showtime a few weeks ago and-"

"Would you just shut-up and follow me?" she turned away and headed off down the street.

Ariel and he exchanged a glance, then he folded the newspaper under his arm and followed...

**End of Part II...**


	24. Chapter VIII: Part III

_Lost in the dark streets of New York..._

"Come on! We've gotta keep movin! Ya just know they're mobilizin as we speak, spreadin out into a capture-grid or whateva they call it. Come _on_!"

The dark-haired sixteen year-old Slayer hitched the other girl's arm farther over her shoulder and nearly lifted her off her feet as they half-ran, half-limped down the trash-strewn alley.

"I think...I think my ankle's broken..." mumbled the blonde teen, her head lolling back and forth.

"So what? You heard them talking when they thought we were doped-up, they're gonna do a helluva lot worse to us then break some leg bones once they get us back to their lair or whateva. We gotta be smaht, we gotta get off the street-"

"Smaht? What is...what's..." the blonde Slayer took a deep breath, fighting the dizziness, "...what's smaht?"

The brunette rounded the corner and dragged her companion down another narrow channel between graffiti-sprayed brick walls, "Smaht? Ya know, clever, brainy, smaht."

"Oh, _smart_." the wounded girl's eyes glazed over as numbness spread across her body, "Heh-heh, you talk funny..."

"Don't be retahded, _you're_ the one with an accent you could sharpen an axe on."

A grungy man in a soggy hat loomed from a doorway, "Hey, honey, spare sum change?"

"Piss-off, ya moron, or I'll kick yer teeth in."

"Hey, I don't want no trouble." he looked them up-and-down and scratched at his stubble, "Why are you gals wearing hospital gowns? You just escape from Bellevue?"

The brunette halted and propped up her friend, "Uh, yeah, we just broke out. You gotta problem with that?"

He shook his head hard, his eyes crossing, "Nope, uh-uh, none at all. I was in that place for near-on a year and besides the regular grub I hated it. So did Marvin."

"Marvin? Who's Marvin?"

He swallowed and his eyes crossed even deeper for a moment, then he grinned widely and his gaze grew foggy, "Hiya, girly, I'm Marvin." his voice was different now and high-pitched like a clown's. He looked them up-and-down again as drool bubbled on his lips, "What are you nuts? Running around barefoot on streets like this? You gonna get all slashed up and sick. Hee-hee-hee! Slashed up, heh-heh..."

A siren sounded in the distance and the sound of heavy wings fluttered overhead. The young brunette looked about her, then back at the clearly schizophrenic man, "You know a place inside where we could hold-up fer a bit?"

"Sure, lots of places. I know all the special corners, lil girl. That's if you ain't particular."

She grinned lopsided, "Oh, we ain't."

He nodded, the mad smile never leaving his face, then set off down the alley, "Follow me then, girly. I'll show you a great place where nobody will ever find you."

She hitched the other Slayer higher on her shoulder, the girl had nodded completely off now, then set off after him. She glanced back over her shoulder before they rounded the corner, then turned her brown eyes back and vanished round the turn.

Above where she'd met Marvin, high up in the complex network of catwalks and fire-escapes, a yellow-eyed bat, way too big to be natural, hung upside-down and stared after the direction the three humans had vanished in. Then without a sound it let go, plummeted down five meters and righted, then winged off to report back to his brethren...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Inside the hidden Initiative Complex..._

The towering blast door levered up into the ceiling, and as one everyone in the Operations Hanger halted whatever they were doing and rotated around, sensing _his_ presence. He stood, ensconced under layers of rich Carpathian wool, his dark hood a looming chasm of fury, and he only had eyes for the line of three soldiers standing at full attention, eyes facing forward, seeing, but not seeing him.

They stared each other down for more then four minutes, then at last he moved forward, closing the gap to a meter. The hood rotated back-and-forth, studying all three stoney expressions intently. Their uniforms were soaked and dripping, he noted with distaste.

"The hydrant."

"Sir?" asked the Private who had been driving. His helmet was slightly crooked.

"The fire hydrant. The one you are all wet from, because you drove over it for all to see in the center of the biggest city on the planet, thus possibly exposing us and our operations, _thus_ jeopardizing everything I-_we _have worked nearly a year toward. And Private...did I say you could speak?"

"Uh...n-no...you didn't, sir."

"Exactly." he looked to Lt. Marquette, "Kill him."

Without hesitation the man drew his side-arm, ratcheted back the Glock's slide, then shot the younger man beside him through the head.

Their master looked to the remaining Private, "Dano, isn't it?"

The shock-haired Idaho-native nodded fervently.

"Draw your weapon as well."

With a squeal of leather the man pulled the Glock from his hip-holster.

"Cock it." he commanded and the Private did so.

"All right. Now, who was responsible for monitoring the subject's sedation?"

"I was." replied Marquette, his tone laced with guilt, "I apologize, sir. I obviously underestimated the dosage and allowed them to regain consciousness. In my defense though-"

"Defense? You have no defense. You were charged with the two Slayer's transportation here and you failed, there is nothing more then that."

"Just so you know, sir," spoke up Dano, "I believe I broke Slayer 014's ankle with the stock of my taser-blaster during their escape."

"Really? You did?"

"Yes sir." the man replied proudly.

"That's good to know. Marquette, shoot him."

BOOM!

The leader stepped past the two crumpled bodies and leaned in close to the remaining Lieutenant, whispered something that only he could hear. Then he stepped back and folded his hands into the voluminous sleeves of his cloak. The Lieutenant spun on his heel and marched off, his face granite. He took the taser-blaster from the arms of an observing Security Guard as he went, then climbed into the driver's seat of a Hummer and started it up. Ten seconds later the armored black 4X4 was rising into the ceiling on the platform lift, Marquette hunched over the wheel with a look of unholy determination pulsating from his intense eyes.

The leader watched him go, then waved a clean-up crew over to take care of the Privates. As the lift clanked into the ceiling he turned on his heel and vanished back into the Complex...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Elsewhere in the city, also below ground-level..._

"Faith? Are you feeling alright?"

The Slayer halted for a moment as she ran her hands in circles along the cement wall. She looked back over her shoulder at the half-demoness, "Sure, I'm wicked. Just give me a sec here."

Ariel glanced over at Xander who was leaning against a column reading his newspaper. He sensed her gaze and glanced up. He shrugged, "When she gets like this I tend to leave her alone."

"That's good advice." muttered Faith as she tracked along the wall.

"But if she starts speaking in tongues and foaming at the mouth then you gotta restrain her and stick a stake between her teeth so she won't choke on her own bile."

"Bite me, Harris."

Ariel stared longingly at the grey leather jacket hanging down over Xander's shoulders, "Um, maybe I'm ready to accept your offer."

"And what offer would that be?"

"Of your, you know, your jacket."

"Maybe I'm cold now too."

She scowled, "What, did Mr. Chivalry leave the building while I wasn't looking?"

He rolled up the paper and grinned, tossed it away and shrugged out of his coat, "Just kidding. I was wondering how long you could hold out."

As Faith tracked off into the shadows of the abandoned section of the 86th Street terminal, Ariel folded her arms and looked away from him, nose high and proud, "Nope, forget about it. I don't want it now."

Xander shook his head and stepped forward, draped the coat over her anyway, "You don't seem to be standing by your convictions too hard."

She shuddered under the heavy leather and smiled to herself, "It's a silent protest. And anyway, I'm still cold."

"Oh yeah?" he moved behind her and slid his arms around her, pulled her to him. Her eyes went wide as he pressed his face into her drying curly hair and whispered into her left ear, "How about now?"

"Uhhh...yeah...that's much better." she closed her eyes and let his warmth swallow her up, as he nuzzled her neck. After a long and very pleasurable minute she opened her eyes again and tipped her head away from him, looked round at his face, "Um, what exactly are we doing?"

He cricked his mouth and shrugged, "You got me. I'm sort of going with the flow here."

"Yeah, me too." she turned in his grip and opened the jacket. He slid forward, encircling her waist under the folds of leather and kissed her gently, while his hands gripped her narrow waist. She bent into him and gripped him back through his flannel shirt. For another minute they drifted through the embrace, lips working slowly and breath flowing as one, then Xander broke it and lulled his head back, "Wow, it's never been like _that _before."

"I know..." she half-moaned, as traces of white energy danced in her mouth and nostrils. _How come he isn't gasping and going limp? I mean in a bad way. He doesn't seem drained even a bit and yet I'm still Siphoning_, she grinned and buried her head in his chest, _this doesn't make any sense..._

_Demon! She's a demon! Yet another one, and a Succubus to boot!_ Xander stared up into the high-beamed ceiling and traced with his lone eye the complex network of pipes and insulated wires that made civilization in New York City possible.

_What the hell am I doing? I swore after the wedding fell to pieces never again. Not even one who'd turned back to human. Of course, I swore too after Natalie French the She-Mantis._ _And after Ampada the mummy girl. No more demon girlfriends, that's what I promised myself. Hmmm, I think I'm sensing a pattern here. But I'm sure_ _THIS_ _time it will all go_ perfectly _well. I mean, she's a Succubus, she craves men's sexual energy as sustenance, so how could we possibly_ _NOT_ _live happily-ever-after?_

"Whatcha thinking about?" asked Ariel and he looked back down into her greenish-brown eyes and smiled.

"Oh, this and that. Nothing important. Like, how come sheep don't shrink in the rain? They're made of wool, aren't they?"

"You're certifiable, Xander, you do know that, right?"

"Oh, very much so. But it's not like you're a perfect measure of sanity, you know."

"Right you are. I like you, so I must be animal crackers."

He brushed her warm cheek and she moved against his hand, "You like me, huh?" he asked.

"Yep. Very, very much."

"Yay."

"So, do you?"

He played a finger across her narrow lips, "Do I what?"

"Like me?"

Xander leaned in and kissed her lightly, "What do you think?" then his eye went wide at the sight of her.

Her body appeared to glow with it's own inner light, a ghostly shimmer that outlined her in deep purple. And she seemed oblivious to it. His jaw twitched and his grip fell loose.

Suddenly, for no reason she could discern, Ariel felt uncomfortable, "Um...why are you looking at me like that?" she pushed back, breaking what was left of his hold on her. He blinked and looked very confused, reached out for her, watched his fingers pass through the bizarre outline, "Weird... Is it a Succubus thing?"

Her eyes narrowed, "What, me liking you? You think this is all just a pretense to lower your defenses and then suck you dry?" she caught his chin and pulled his roving gaze down to her own, "If you have a problem with my demonic heritage, this is a helluva time to let it kick in."

"What? No, I..." he trailed off as the glow faded then vanished. He blinked again, shook his head, "Confused, I'm very confused..."

"Uh, _you're_ confused?"

_Maybe it was something I ate_, Xander mused. He shook his head a second time, "Look, sorry, Ariel, did I say something wrong?" _Um, what exactly_ did _I say over the last ten seconds? Nothing clever and James Bondy, I'll bet..._

"No... No. Nothing wrong at all..." she fidgeted and looked back-and-forth, "Maybe we should check on Faith. She's been gone a bit and, um, might...might need us."

He tried to close the gap again, "Are you okay?"

She caught up Faith's heavy duffle with seemingly no effort, then pushed past him brusquely and headed off down the length of the wall, "I'm just duckie. Come on, Xander, no time for standing around talking."

He turned and watched her go, eye narrowing. _O-kay, how'd I mess that up?_ he shook his head in surrender, _she may be a demon but she's still a woman, and I'm never gonna understand them, no matter what the species..._

Twenty meters away Ariel found Faith standing still, facing the wall, palm pressed to it, eyes closed and her lips moving silently. The blonde cocked an eye at her and slid hands deep into the pockets of the leather coat, leaned back on her heels, "Uh, am I interrupting something? Do you like, need to be alone with the wall?"

"...two short, then one long, and then three more short..." muttered the Slayer, then she pushed against the grey square and to Ariel's shock it depressed easily. She peered closer in fascination, saw the faint outline of an etched triangle, "What's that? What are you doing?"

Xander appeared beside them, his face lit-up with excitement. The Initiative multiscanner was in his left hand and it was bleeping shrilly as red dots danced on it's tiny jade screen, "Hey! We got a reading, and it's not just one, it's...two..." with a soft grating noise a door-sized portal slid back before Faith, revealing inky blackness.

"Whoa..." he breathed, the scanning device forgotten for a moment.

He and Ariel stared as Faith boldly stepped forward and vanished into the wall. They looked at each other for a moment, then followed after her. A second later the portal grated shut and the abandoned section of the subway station was still and silent once more...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_The Initiative Complex..._

He stormed down the length of the dimly-illuminated corridor, cell doors sliding by on either side. Two of them buzzed as he passed them, their electromagnetic containment grids activated to reinforce the heavy hydraulic doors. _Only two..._ the dark thought undulated bitterly through his hooded cranium and he fought the urge to kick the wall, to break something, to yell his wrath to the ceiling for all the Complex to hear.

_Time is running out, my power from the Infusion is starting to fade, my hold on them is weakening! Why does this keep happening? Why can't anything go right? I thought after I dispatched Faith and the others everything would proceed smoothly as it had before they first showed up and tossed a wrench into the works, but NO, it just keeps going to blazes no matter how hard I try to manage it!_

He halted, spun on his heel and headed back up the passageway, came to a stop before the first illuminated doorway. He peered through the reinforced safety glass at the redheaded girl lying straight-jacketed and sedated on the cot within. His eyes traced her angelic face and he wanted to hurl open the door and beat on her with his fists, to shake and throttle her while she screamed, to make her tell him "why it keeps going ALL WRONG!"

"Sir?" spoke a voice and he froze in the midst of beating his fists against the door, "Are you feeling all right?"

He lowered his hands and turned, beheld the enigmatic visage of Lt. Alyona Bannon. The narrow-faced female was dressed as usual in a grey lab-coat, with her blue-black hair pulled back into a severe bun and the trademark silver clipboard pressed to her washboard chest. She was staring at him in exactly the same way she had done so when she'd first met him in the Operations Hanger a month earlier, upon his return with _Team Brooklyn _after failing on the Brooklyn Bridge. Meaning, her face was stoney and her eyes harsh yet obedient. Actually, she was like this always, or at least, every time he interacted with her.

_I wonder why that is? What makes her different from all the other Initiative soldiers under my thumb? The rest are like loyal dogs, chipper and helpful, quick with a yes sir! But while Lt. Bannon here follows my orders to the letter, there's a surly manner to her speech, a defiant look in her eyes. If this was just starting now I'd wonder if my weakening power was allowing her to break through my cantrip, but she's been like this ever since I-_

"I said, are you feeling all right, sir?"

He stared at her for a long moment, then leaned in close and used THE VOICE, just as he had the first time he'd addressed the Initiative Complex at large and taken utter control of them all, "**You will serve my will**."

"Of course I will, sir, why wouldn't I?"

"**You will obey my every command**, **no matter what it is**."

She nodded, "No matter what it is."

"**And**...**and**..." he trailed off and his voice returned to normal, "Bloody hell, it doesn't work on you, does it?"

She shook her head, "Nope, it never did."

He was taken aback and licked his lips under the shadow of his hood, "Then...then why have you acted like it had? All this time!"

"Because I want what you want, sir. Your goal is my goal." then Alyona grinned darkly, "And I was going to try something along this line myself, anyway." her eyes suddenly swirled with dark energies and he felt the hair on the back of his neck rise.

"A witch..." she nodded and the energy faded, "But how did a witch evade the Initiative's safe-guards and enter their ranks undetected?"

"Oh, I'm no ordinary witch, let me tell you."

He shrugged, "No matter. Then you know what's coming, the bargain I've made."

"Yes. And I want in."

"Ah, my dear Alyona, _everybody_ on this planet is in. The difference between them and me-them and _us_, is that _they_ will be the ones to serve, while _we_ will be the ones to share in the power."

Bannon's grin deepened and she looked to the cell door he'd been attempting to batter down when she'd come upon him, "You have two now and two were on the way, which makes four. And four Slayers is the magic number."

"Yes, but now the final pair of Slayers have escaped."

She frowned, "So that's what's causing all the chaos up in the Operations Hanger. You're trying to reacquire them. And I think it might be a good thing that you do."

"Of _course_ it's a good thing that I do! If you know what I'm up to then you know I'm on a time-table! I need four Slayers and I need them now!"

"Oh, so you don't know about the two who escaped, then? Well, about one of them, anyway."

He scowled at her, "Don't know what? Stop speaking in riddles, woman, and just tell me."

"Slayer-033..." and she turned her clipboard around, thumbed it to life, "You need to see this."

He stared at the image and his eyes narrowed, then he read the text, "You're joking."

"No. I'm not."

He looked back to the image then shrugged, "Again, no matter. A Slayer is a Slayer, their blood is what I want."

"Even Slayer-Zero?"

He cocked his hood, "Who? Oh, you mean 002." he grimaced, "Actually, the re-designation of Faith makes sense, now that you bring it up." he swept past her in a swirl of cloak, "The men will bring 014 and 033 back, they can't hide from us forever. No matter where they go in this city, my men will track them with their multiscanners and bring them in. It's only a matter of time, their inborn Slayer powers will give them away and then they will be mine."

With admiration in her dark eyes Alyona Bannon watched him go...

**End of Part III...**


	25. Chapter VIII: Part IV

_Thirty blocks away at the same depth beneath the city..._

With a burst of dusty light the chamber lit-up.

Xander and Ariel stared about them in amazement, gazes sweeping across what shouldn't even exist. Faith stood beside the light switch she'd found like a proud new homeowner, hands on her hips and grinning smugly, "Well? Wadda ya think?"

"Think?" said Xander, "I don't know _what_ to think." he turned in a full circle, "Wait, this is like another 86th Street subway station, only architecturally-reversed." he gestured at the end of the platform on the right, "It's like a second track, a back-up one." he eyed the two exit tunnels, peered into their shadows one-after-another, "But it's inactive, they're walled up with cinder blocks."

He looked back to Faith, "What is this place? And how did you even know it was here?"

Ariel made the connection, "It's like back on Earth-Two. That titanium engine car you rode to Silver City on."

The Slayer nodded, "They called it a Reserve Station. It was constructed during the Cold War and then forgotten due to budget cuts."

Xander grinned, "You asked Tara about it, if there was a New York one, and where it was located. Because if there was one on Earth-Two, then-"

"-there would be one exactly like it, here on Earth-One." Ariel finished.

"And nobody knows about it, look at all the dust!" Faith spread her arms in excitement, "Think about it. This is all ours, and talk about rent control!"

"Not to mention location." agreed Ariel, her hazel eyes narrowing with plots and plans, "You know...this could easily be converted into living quarters." she pointed at the left wall, "See that? His and Hers bathrooms. Those Cold Warriors were very thorough, if I remember my history lessons on the Colonies right. So I'll bet the plumbing is still working." she dropped Faith's bag then headed off at a jog and vanished into the Ladies.

Xander was frowning now. He scratched his neck absently, "I dunno..."

"What's to 'I dunno'?" Faith stepped up and linked her arm in his, lead him off past the spread out row of support pylons, "You're Tim the Tool-Man when it comes to construction, yo, I saw all you did keepin Buffy's homestead ship-shape in the middle of a raging war with the First. Now you get to create and be original, instead of just maintaining the status quo. There's only the three of us and you have tons of room. Think about it."

"Yeah...but what if the government hasn't forgot about this place? What if they come back?"

She halted them beside a column and ran a hand down it, scraping off forty years of thick grit, then held up her caked fingers for his approval, "Huh? Well? Do you really think they're comin back any time soon? I'm thinkin, if the Initiative has set-up shop here in the Big Apple, they'd be usin this place for sumthin, anything. That's if they _knew _it even existed. Which they obviously don't."

Faith stepped back and folded her arms, fixed Xander with a demanding stare, "You gotta take a chance once in awhile, Harris, go out on a limb so you can improve your standings in life."

"Yeah...I guess..."

"Anyhow, how safe is it going to be living from hotel room to hotel room, where any vamp with an agenda can break in at any time? Like those super-charged ones we faced back at Club Odessa. Once we make this place livable, they won't be able to enter without an invite, will they? Well?"

"No. They won't..." he looked about him again, then nodded, "Okay, I'm in. But it has to be unanimous, meaning Ariel wants to move in too, or it's all off. Don't forget, she's used to living in the lap of luxury, so this might not be something she's up for."

The bathroom door slammed back and the Succubus in question leaned out beaming, "It works! All of it! And there's showers! All they need is new heads and maybe a filter. When can we get my furniture out of storage and rent a moving van?"

Xander shook his head and Faith chuckled, "I guess the girl is in." she turned and jabbed her finger in the grit and wrote jaggedly: Home Sweet Home

Then she turned back to him, pointed at his blinking jacket pocket, "Now, what's yer dohicky sayin?"

His eye went wide, "Crap! The multiscanner!" he pulled it free and brought up the reading he'd picked up on back in the occupied terminal, "Right! Not just one Slayer but_ two_."

Ariel breezed up as Faith stared down at the green-glowing screen, "Two? After a month of searching and finding nothing, then getting lost in another dimension, we come back and suddenly, on the very first day back, there's two?"

He shrugged, "Hey, I don't make the rules, I just bend them."

Faith smiled thinly, "And I break'em. So, 'kay. Now we've got the perfect place to hide them away until Buffy's brigade can pick'em up. So...let's go get'em."

"Lets." nodded Ariel...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Boston Massachusetts, May 1998..._

The atmosphere in the Crookshank Bar & Grill was dark and calm, as per usual on a late Friday night.

Greasy clouds of blue-grey smoke hung over a few of the circular tables, while the stools before the pitted mahogany bar were half-filled with hunched over men contemplating their shots or ale, while chatting here and there in muted voices. Johnny Cash drifted from the antique Croomagram jukebox in the far corner, doing nothing to add to the putrid ambiance ruined by the soggy Chinese box lights somebody had foolishly strung amongst the low rafters.

The door to the ladies swung back and a tall, leggy blonde strode free in a sway of hips and blue-sequined hand bag. Her name was Sheila and she pushed at her platinum-blonde coiffe then made for the center of the bar, hopped her mini-skirted behind up on a stool and smiled waif-like at the bartender.

The server made no reply, just refilled her scotch.

The bear of a man beside her waited until she'd downed it. Inside his own slightly tequila-addled mind he mentally ticked it off as her fifth shot of the night, so thus rotated around toward her, grinned.

"Hi. You're out late."

Her overly-mascara'd eyes swiveled in their slightly blood-shot sockets and took him in, flicked up-and-down his solid length. She liked what she saw, or at least approved of what little her rapidly fogging senses managed to process.

Sheila smirked slightly, "I like it late. None of that annoying sunlight."

He leaned in a little closer and chuckled wryly, "Hey, I'm with ya on that. You're smaht to be a night-owl."

"Oh? How so?" she fought not to slur her speech and decided one-syllable words were probably her best-bet.

"Ya get a better class of people this time of night." he explained, the cheap aftershave reeking off him in waves.

She giggled, "Do you? I don't think so." she glanced around the Crookshank, eying the wrinkled patrons, as the entrance door swung back to admit yet another customer, "You call these guys a better class of pee...pee...people?" she covered her mouth and burped, blinked in embarrassment. He smiled it off and slid a rough hand onto her knee. She liked him so she allowed it. Even widened the gap between her legs slightly.

He noticed.

"Yep." he smirked as his eyes plowed a channel down the length of her cleavage, "You know how you stand with honest guys like these."

"You must spend your day with some really scummy kinds then." her eyes flicked to his left hand toying with the rim of his shot glass. _No ring or tan line, 'kay, he passes number two..._

"Yeah, I do." he squeezed her knee and slid up a little farther, poked his finger through a run in her stocking. He lowered the tone of his voice, "You like cops, babe?"

"Ooo yeah, I like'em lots."

"Good, 'cause I'm the best cop Beantown's ever had, and about a thousand Southie bastards have got my knuckles tattooed on the backs of their heads."

She slipped a hand along his thigh and deepened her smile, "If you take me home, handsome, can I see your gun?"

"Oh, honey, if ya go home with ol'Jake here, then you'll get ta see alot more then just his gun." said another girl who they both realized was now standing beside them.

Sheila scowled and glared at her, "Go away, we're talkin." then she looked back to the cop for support, but his face had hardened, his cheeks had reddened even more then his night of drinking had accomplished. He glared at the new girl and a vein pulsed in his left temple.

"Leave. I won't tell you twice."

"Make me."

Sheila reached out a hand to push the brunette away, but the girl caught her wrist and twisted hard, she yelped and fell off her stool. Her face was livid as she scrambled madly on her ass amongst the cigarette butts and sticky tiles, then she got to her feet and slashed at her attacker with her store-bought nails. The girl was faster and flat-handed her halfway across the room, Sheila crashed over a table and landed on her back, didn't get up.

Jake was off the stool in a flash and he grabbed her attacker by the arm, twisted, "You little bitch! I _told _you what would happen if I ever saw your smart-assed face again!"

She yanked her arm free and grinned, "I forget, musta been all those times you got suspended from work, got piss-drunk, then punched me in the head. So jog my memory 'kay? What _did_ ya tell me?"

He swung a fist for her face, "I told you to-" she _caught_ the hand.

Jake stared at her hand for a long second, her slim and delicate fingers were motionless and hard as they grasped his meaty fist. He pushed against it but it didn't shift even a millimeter. With narrowing eyes he looked into her face and saw that she was grinning ear-to-ear. Something was...very wrong here...

His lips twisted and he snatched his hand back, "Droppin PCP, huh? Heh, you always were pathetic."

She shook her face emphatically, "Nope, not PCP. Not anything at all, actually."

_Drug or no drug,_ Jake thought as he glared her down, _there's nuthin she could have taken that's gonna save her from the beat-down I'm about to lay on her._ "I'm gonna wail on you, lil girl, until you vomit blood, then I'm gonna drag you back to that hell-hole of a trailer and have _her _wail on ya." and he reached for her hair to drag her out of the bar.

She side-stepped and ducked past him, swung back a foot and drove her heel into the back of his leg. He growled in pain and fell to his knees. She spun back and caught him by the hair, yanked his head back and grinned down at him, "Is that the best ya got?" he slipped a hand down his left leg and slid a black rod from his boot.

She yanked him back even farther, "Cause if it is, Jake, I got bad news for ya, it ain't gonna-" he snapped the tube up, it telescoped into a baton, he spun out of her grip and slashed it for her knees.

"-cut it!" she sprang up, his blow went wide, she came back down, her boot slamming down onto the weapon, ramming it and his fingers to the floor, then she kneed him in the chin, sending him flying backwards to crash through the bar's window. It shattered and he plunged twisting to the sidewalk, slapped it face-first, deflected off and into the street in a spray of teeth shards and blood, then rolled into the gutter.

He coughed hard, climbed painfully to his hands and knees, the Crookshank's door slammed back and she stalked out, followed by an amazed crowd. She reached him, grabbed him by the neck and hip, then _hefted_ him up and over her head, then turned about and threw him like he was nothing. He crashed across the hood of a battered red Camaro and slammed into the windshield, spider-webbing it badly with his shoulder.

"I'm still waitin for you to wail on me." she mocked.

Then she rounded the side and grabbed him by the throat, flipped him over, spun, got him in a headlock and wrenched him free of the sports car. She hauled him bodily down the sidewalk then charged forward and tossed him head-first through the glass partition of a bus shelter. He crashed down to the ground in a shower of chunky glass, groaned and rolled over. He tried to sit up, but she appeared above him and stepped on his throat, forcing him back down with another show of impossible strength.

Her eyes drunk with victory, she glowered down at his battered and bleeding face, "I could kill you, right here, right now, end your life like I've always wanted to do, like you _deserve_. But I'm better then that, I'm better then you, I'm better then EVERYBODY! And do you know _why_?"

"Wha...bha..." he sputtered and gagged for breath.

And she spit down on his face, "Cause I'm the Slayer, now. And nuthin on this friggin planet can stop me."

With shaking hands Jake pried the gun from his holster, but she easily snatched it from his grip and bent the barrel like it was made of rubber. The growing crowd shrank back. She tossed the ruined automatic and stepped off him, kicked him in the side of the head, slamming his face into the shelter's support with a meaty clang! knocking him out cold. Then Faith, newly-Chosen Vampire Slayer for nearly two hours now, turned on her heel and strode away, a swagger to her step.

"If you see her first say hi to Mom for me, will ya Dad?" she called back, not caring in the least whether he heard her or not, "And tell that bitch I gotta beat-down planned for _her_ too..."

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_What used to be the Wilson-Schultz Bobby-Pin Manufactory, NYC, present day..._

The girl came awake slowly and felt rough and uneven floorboards underneath her, while her ear-drums twitched at the eerie sound of wind whistling nearby. But she was very warm, cozy even, and her head was pillowed on something soft. She judged this one of her better come-to's of late and opened her eyes, looked around.

She was in a darkened building of sorts. Painted over windows on the right, a row of towering machinery on the left, with warped and rusted conveyor belts crossing the warped floor sporadically. A fire burned within a ring of cinder-blocks and around it a scraggly man was muttering under his breath and dancing. And not doing a bad job of it, in her opinion.

"He's been doin that for more then an hour now." said the other girl who'd helped her escape and she looked across the crackling blaze at her, where she sat upon an old apple crate, a hunk of half-chewed turkey-jerky in her hands, "I don't know what the song is that he's singing. Might be a Madonna one."

The young blonde sat up, not without effort, then felt along her leg carefully. The dark-haired girl rounded the fire and crouched by her, "I checked it while you were out. It's nearly healed now. Not bad for a foot that was broken just seven hours ago."

"Um...I don't think it was broken. It must have been only sprained."

The other girl rolled her eyes, "Riiight. Look, don't bother trying to hide it from me. See?" and she pulled back the sleeve of the baggy sweat-shirt she now wore, revealing a wide blue bar-code stamped into her lower left arm. Under the bars it read 033.

She looked down at her own and read 014. The brunette nodded grimly, "We're the same."

"The same what?"

She leaned back on her haunches and shrugged, "I dunno, in the nine-ten months since I changed I've never been able to find out. You?"

She shook her head, "Nope, haven't got a clue. But did you know that vampires are real?"

"Yeah." the dark-haired girl nodded firmly, "I killed four of 'em, broke their necks and turned'em to dust. Oh, and this big fat demon with skin like bacon."

"A demon? Really? I haven't seen any, but somehow I'm not surprised. Um, my names Claudia."

They shook.

"Nice to meet ya, Claude." she reached behind her and handed over a bundle of wrinkled clothes, "It ain't Bloomies, but it's better then a linen gown that gapes in the back. Courtesy of Dancin Marvin over there. Sorry, but there's no shoes or socks, but then I'm in the same boat as you." she stood and helped her to her feet, pointed to a large chunk of machinery, "There's sort of a nook back there. And it's gotta hole in the floor, if ya know what I mean."

Claudia nodded and limped off. A few minutes later she returned, clad in dusty day-glo orange trousers and a tattered Method Man tee. She ran hands back through her shoulder-length dirty-blonde hair and wished she had a hair-band or something.

The other girl held out a fist, from which a pair of bobby-pins protruded. Claudia blinked then smiled, took them gingerly, "Wow, you think of everything. Where'd you find them?"

She spread her hands, "They're everywhere. This is a factory and they musta made them here, I guess."

Claudia panned her gaze around as she pinned back her tresses, saw a dark spiky heap of duplicate pins a few meters away, easily as high as her waist. She turned back and eyed the half-bar of dried meat, "Um, can I have a bite of that?"

"Sure." it was handed over, "Go crazy. Marvin's gotta stash. There's water in that Pepsi bottle over there, but don't try the Coke one, it..." she grinned, "Lets just say it ain't water..."

Claudia limped across the planks to it and lifted it carefully, sipped while trying not to breath in through her nose. The Coke bottle stank to the high-heavens and the air around it seemed to waver dangerously. After thirty seconds of swallowing she was sated somewhat and set it back down, turned back to the fire and bit off a mouthful of jerky.

"So, you never told me your name. Or should I just call you Thirty-Three?"

The girl didn't answer, her head was swishing back-and-forth, eyes rotating narrowly. Claudia raised an eyebrow, "What now, are you gonna start dancing too? If so, you should know-" she was cut-off sharply as a hand was slapped over her mouth.

Marvin was behind her and he rasped into her right ear, "Quiet, girly. Or they might get ya." he released her and stepped back, picked up a rusty pipe and hefted it.

_Who? _Claudia swallowed and looked about her, but only saw shadows punctuated here and there by dim shafts of yellow light from a nearby street-lamp.

"What's he talking about-"

"Shhh!" hissed the other girl as she stalked forward across the dirty factory floor. On the opposite wall an ancient door hung on heavy hinges, highlighted by a rectangle of dim light around it's border. She reached it and with careful movements put out a hand and grasped the knob-the door rocked hard with a thumping-_crash_ and she lurched back a step.

"They've found us! They've found us! The Dark Ones have found us!" howled Marvin and he started hopping up-and-down, waving his pipe like a maniac. Despite the terror in his eyes, he never stopped grinning like a Jack-O-Lantern, "They gonna eat us, bite off our toes and drink us! Ah-hee-hee-hee!"

"Stop it!" snapped Claudia and she grabbed for him, but he danced out of her reach and ran for the line of painted windows.

The other girl looked over her shoulder, eyes wide, "NO! Claude, stop him!"

"But-"

"DO IT!"

That galvanized her, she launched herself forward, bum ankle long forgotten, and vaulted a conveyor Marvin had rounded, landed evenly and kicked off again, hurtled through the air, twisting back around as she went, and landed in front of him, reached up and caught the pipe as he brought it down with a howl for the first window. She yanked it from his grasp and pushed him back hard, "Just calm down, Marvin, just chill!"

"But they're here! But they're here! Weee! They're gonna get us, they're gonna eat us, we're gonna dance like monkeys when they tear out our guts!"

The exit thumped again and this time a hinge popped loose. Claudia looked toward it just as the other girl like her spun away from it and took off back toward her at a run. She threw up her hands and waved at her to do the same, then the door exploded inwards and a cloud of blackness broiled inside in a flapping rush.

Claudia's ears ratcheted at the reverberating sound of rustling leather, she looked up sharply as the darkness spread across the high ceiling, blotting out the rising moonlight that bled down from the random holes in the flooring above. _ Bats. It's bats. But lots of them and they're really, really_-with a crash, a shadowy, thrashing form dropped to the floor before her.

"-big ones..." she finished, as it straightened up and it's form rippled with a sound like bubbling skin. The wings and gaping maw vanished, were replaced by the shape of lean woman in a dark green leather skinsuit. Her black hair was spiked and frosted with silver and her eyes were yellow, her forehead vamped. She grinned and cocked her head, tongued sallow fangs, then clicked her teeth at her, "Fresssssh meat. I'll bet you taste like ground beef."

Claudia paled and stepped backwards, while on the other side of the factory she heard the sounds of heavy combat._ I have to fight too, I can't let Thirty-Three do it alone, no matter what_-then her shoulder-blades pressed against something solid and she spun about, found another vampire blocking her way, this one male and dressed in a straps of riveted leather.

_Oh no..._

Her eyes flicked back-and-forth and discovered two more vampires, on either side of her. She swallowed and tried to think straight, then her shoulders were grabbed and the woman pulled her back against her, Claudia felt her body swimming and heard the creak of leather. She was spun about and found her human no more, but a hybrid of bat and vampire, taller then she and with a face out of nightmares.

It opened it's maw and screeched ultrasonic, Claudia screamed in agony. She clamped her eyes shut and beat at it, fell back and onto her haunches, threw up hands to cover her ears. The howling went on-and-on, she felt rivulets of blood streaming down from her nostrils, then suddenly it ceased and she cracked open her eyes.

A line of bat Hybrids stood before her, hunched bodies twitching leathery and semi-transparent brown-black wings about themselves like ragged capes. And at center of them a tall, thin man in a dapper black suit stood, his cruel eyes locked upon her, a smile twisting his white-goateed face.

A throng of Hybrids moved out of the shadows and dumped the dark-haired girl at his feet. She moaned and fell on her hands and knees, blood staining her bruised face. She looked up at him through unfocused eyes, "Who...who are you?"

He tore his gaze from Claudia and glowered down at her, "I am Cronin of the Clan Oranak. And you, girl, are a Slayer." he looked back at the other one, "And so are you. Excellent. You won't find any others of your kind in New York, just in case that's why you came here. We don't stand for them, you see. They annoyed us somewhat so we drove them all away, and killed the ones who wouldn't leave."

"Okay." said Claudia cautiously, licking her dry lips, "We'll go. We didn't want to come here in the first place and don't want any trouble."

He grinned then laughed, "Oh, it's far too late for that. You see, there's a price on your pretty little heads and we mean to collect. Interestingly enough, the bounty didn't specify whether you needed to be alive or dead for us to collect, just that your blood be intact and still somewhat warm. So..." his features twisted and vamped, his eyes glowed a sickly yellow, "...I think we'll try for dead and see how much we can get."

The bat-Hybrids shrieked their agreement and moved forward, Claudia shrank back and raised shaking fists. Then-_then_ the windows shattered inwards in a spray of spinning glass, and a woman hurtled through and landed at the ready between her and the vamps!

She had long black hair pooling on her shoulders and was dressed in dusty torn jeans, hiking boots and a red halter-top. She pulled a lethal-looking stake from her back pocket and rotated around to face the horde of misshapen vamps. She grinned and hefted her pine weapon, "Cronin. Wicked. Dontcha know I've just been _jonesing _for another throw-down with your sorry ass."

"Slayer..." he hissed, smile turning to a sneer, "I'd heard you'd left town more then a month ago." his grin returned, "I assumed you ran after the beating I gave you."

"Heh, correction there monolith, dontcha mean the beating_ I_ gave _you_? Let me guess, no more goin all marble for you since I sanded that Glyph right off yer bony chest."

He scowled and she laughed, "I _knew_ it! So, you Oranak's have a weakness after all, perfect. And guess what, I'm all about takin the advantage when it comes to...comes to..." her senses had been trying to get her attention for nearly a minute now and at last they managed to tunnel through her sarcastic lambations. Her gaze swiveled downwards to the girl lying between her and Cronin. Her eyes gaped and her spine ran cold, "Wha-Hope?"

And the girl looked up at her, eyes focusing at last, then she scowled, "Dammit-all, I thought it was _you_." she straightened up and spat in disgust, her bloody saliva splashing down onto Faith's left boot.

"I'd rather it be more vampires, or cops, or even Typhoid Mary herself. But not _you_."

And the Slayer exhaled long and hard, shook her head, "And it's _real _nice to see you again too, sis..."

**End of Chapter VIII...**


	26. Chapter IX: Part I

**SLAYERS: THREE OF A KIND**

**Chapter IX - Shell Game**

_The north-end of Boston, May 1998..._

Faith raced along the nocturnal lane with the speed of an Olympic sprinter, knees and elbows pumping in a black-leather blur, heart pounding smoothly within her chest, and the wonder of it all was that she had been maintaining this pace for close to an hour now, a feat that should be impossible.

_But not for the Slayer_, she grinned, then vaulted a Pontiac Seville, landed with barely a bend of the knee and kept on going, no momentum lost. _Yo, I think I actually gained sum there, heh, this wicked rocks!_

And that was only the tip of the iceberg, after her premiere Slay at the morgue she had noticed a cut on her forehead, but it had faded in only a few hours. And according to Marion the same would happen for almost any injury. And now she was going to London, England in the morning, this ruled! _I never thought I'd travel, never thought I'd even get outa this crapfest of a town, let alone Europe! Dude... I_ _LOVE bein the Slayer. Hey, maybe they pay too, which would be_ mad _wicked..._

Faith rounded another turn on the sidewalk then slowed, sided onto a gravel driveway. A dark lot loomed before her and she ducked behind the back of the double-wide trailer, her hobnailed boots pressing into the dewy crab-grass. She looked at her wrist then remembered she didn't own a watch, decided if her Mom had one she'd steal it, 'cause there was no way she was gonna be late getting back to motel. The airport shuttle was due at four am, and she was _so_ on it.

_London, baby, yeah!_

She reached the back and dragged over a milk-crate filled with old paint cans, propped it up under the window above, then hopped onto it, dug at the sill. She managed to get her fingers under it, but felt the resistance of the lock. _Damn, I don't wanna go through the front door, that'll take too long and maybe wake'em up._ Her brow furrowed in annoyment,_ last thing I wanna do is get the Old Lady outa bed, 'cause then the crap will really_-she shut her eyes and shook her head, laughed under her breath. _Oh right, I'm the Slayer now, heh..._

Faith pushed up and with barely any effort snapped the catch clean apart. She hitched up the window, then squeezed through, landed lightly on the linoleum. She straightened up and looked about her, ears open. She heard the sound of muted voices coming from the living room, so somebody was awake, not that it mattered. She turned and fumbled for the lightswitch, then blinked as yellow light sprang to life around her.

A shoulder bag from her closet was perfect, she began pulling open drawers and stuffing what clothing was left into it, then unplugged her clockradio and added it too. She turned and moved to the bookshelf, began grabbing CD's, then looked around for her discman, but didn't see it.

_Stupid bitch probably hocked it for smokes or beer, jeez, I'm so damn stoked I'm never gonna see her shinin cheeks again_-the door slammed back into the wall and light blazed in from the hallway. She froze, then grimaced and slowly turned around.

"Where the _hell_ have you been?" roared a voice she'd hoped never to hear again.

Faith's stomach twisted and she looked down at her feet, then winced as the woman said it again, this time three octaves higher.

"_Where the_ hell _have you been_!"

"Um...look, Mom, it's hard to explain, b-but I-" the slap came in a rush and she was knocked into the doorframe. Then she was yanked forward by a tight grip on her arm and hauled down the narrow, crooked hallway.

"I can explain, jeez! Let go! I said _let go_!" she pulled free as they reached the living room and her Mother whirled back, furious.

"Don't you talk back to me! You think you can do what ya want, go where ya want, _screw_ who you want, like the little whore ya are!" the dark-haired woman raged, her fetid breath blasting across Faith's face, making her cough.

The woman turned and snagged the vodka bottle from off the counter, waved it at her, "Your Father is gonna give it to ya, I guarantee that. Soon as he gets home, which is soon, his shift is nearly over."

Faith rolled her eyes, "Shift, yeah right, he was at Crookshanks an hour ago, groping some skank-" _wham!_ another blow cracked across her cheek.

"YOU SHUT-UP! YOU KEEP YOUR BRAT TRAP SHUT!"

"M-Mom?" said a quiet voice beside them and both women looked round to see Hope standing there, clad in Power Ranger pajamas.

"What's goin on?" she rubbed at her eyes, then gaped, grinned, "Faith!"

Her older sister rubbed at her pulsing cheek and forced a smile, "Hiya, kid. What's up?"

"Oh, nuthin. Where you been? It's been like a month-" their mother caught her by the shoulder, spun her about and pitched her forward. She stumbled, hit the wall head-first, went down with a squeal.

"Shut-up and get back to bed!"

Hope got to her feet, wavered about, hand cupped to her chin. Blood dripped through her clenched fingers and her eyes were wet. She blinked at the glowering woman, then turned about and ran back down the hallway.

The mother turned about, fire in her eyes, "Look what you made me do-" _WHAM!_ Faith knocked her back hard, she slammed into the side of the couch. She glared at her scathingly, "Wha-you little bitch! Oh, you're gonna pay for that, I-"

"No!" Faith moved forward, raising a fist, "I'm tired of you and Dad pushin us around just 'cause you think you're stronger. I got news for you, you ain't the tough one anymore, _I _am!"

Her mother laughed, tipped the bottle up and drank what was left, then dropped it in the trashbasket. She grinned, "You? You couldn't fight your way out of a paper-bag. You, the toughest, heh!"

"Y-You're right." said ten year-old Hope from the other side of the room and they both looked to her, "Faith ain't the t-toughest. 'Cause now I am." and she raised her father's spare revolver.

"Wha-NO!" shouted Faith and she lunged for her sister, but the gun _cracked!_ and time slowed down to a crawl.

Orange-yellow fire burst from the snub-nosed barrel and the tapered slug exploded from the flaring vortex and lanced across the room, drilling into the center of Faith's outstretched right hand and spit out the back in a spray of blood, flew the rest of the three meters and slammed into their Mother's forehead.

Time returned to normal as the older woman moaned and pitched over backwards, landing with a meaty thump on the couch, legs splayed. Faith grunted and cradled her hand, staunching the blood-flow. Hope dropped the smoking revolver and sprinted for the door.

"Wait!" shouted Faith, but the screen door slapped back and the girl was gone. Faith looked back to her mother, but there was no doubt she was dead. A greasy line of smoke spiraled up from the hole in her forehead and her dead eyes stared blankly up at the ceiling.

Faith stared at her for a long moment, then just backed up and sat down on a dining room chair, held her hand tight, tried to get control of her breathing. Tears didn't fall, just a coldness began to fill her stomach and spread out through her limbs. The chill would stay with her for years to come. Her lips moved of their own accord, words flowing out softly.

"_...rain, rain, go away...come again another day..._"

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_New York City, present night..._

"Faith!"

Xander scowled at the slim grey CB radio that the Slayer had bought for him only thirty minutes earlier, during a quick side-trip to the 34th Street Radio Shack. The expensive looking two-way seemed to be working fine but she wasn't answering. _And again I'd love to know how Faith is bankrolling all this stuff. Scratch tickets, yeah right, and my Uncle Rory's a Maxim model..._

He lowered the radio and peered out of the alley at the battered old factory across the street. _What's she doing in there?_

It's green-grey walls were lit-up now by the light from streetlamps lining it's front, and though he could easily see the hole in the painted-over windows Faith had vaulted through two minutes ago, he could only make out indistinct shadows beyond it. What was really bothering him though was the serious lack of battle sounds. Most of the time when Faith charged into a dangerous situation, much fighting and crashing of bodies and property instantly took place, but so far that hadn't happened. And since the scan he'd made on the property just five minutes ago had shown it to be occupied by two Slayers and ten vampires, if he'd read it right and he was pretty sure he had, then...

Then...

_Then what? Okay, enough of this, I can't take the suspense anymore._ He raised the radio and flipped channels, "Nighthawk to Heartbreaker, come in Heartbreaker."

There was a crackle, then "_Xander? I told you, give me a chance to make it to the roof. Hey, I thought we weren't going to use code-names 'cause it was lame._"

"That was Faith who said it was lame, not me, Ariel. I actually think it's cool."

"_Uh-huh, whatever. But next time wait for the designated contact time, jeez, you almost made me fall._"

"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to. You didn't, right?"

"_No, that's what the word 'almost' means. Just a second..._" there came the sound of grating stone and the rattle of metal, then Ariel exhaled into the speaker with relief, "_Okay, I'm in position. So what's so important you interrupted my ascension?_"

"Faith's been in there three minutes now and there's yet to be any indication of fighting."

"_So? That's good, right? Maybe she dusted them so fast they never even had a chance to scream. She's a Slayer, remember? And there's supposedly two more in there with her. Odds are even fifty vamps would be hard pressed to stop them, in my opinion._"

He raised his multiscanner and pointed it at the factory, frowned at the readings that appeared a moment later, "No, all ten vampires are still breathing, or whatever it is they do with oxygen." he scowled and turned around, took off at a jog, "No, something's wrong, I can just feel it. I'm going for help, you get in there and lend a hand."

"_What? Wait, what kind of help_-" but he shut off the radio.

"Xander! Nighthawk come in! Xander answer me-aw, dammit, never mind..." four stories up and across the street, Ariel frowned then pocketed the radio, then made for the boxy shape of the factory's looming roof entrance. _Guess it's up to me now. There's a shocker..._

She zipped up the front of the oxblood leather flight-jacket Faith had loaned her from her stash of clothes, then squared her narrow shoulders and caught hold of the knob, twisted with her demon-enhanced strength. It came away with a crunch of rusty metal and the door swung back, revealing dusty descending stairs. She crept inside and began making her way down.

"If ol' Nighthawk doesn't get himself killed getting help, maybe I'll do it myself once all this crap is over and done with..."

But inside Ariel was just as worried as Xander was. What the heck was going on down there?

**End of Part I...**


	27. Chapter IX: Part II

_Faith..._

The ominous name echoed through her mind as she paced back-and-forth in her study before the crackling fireplace, cellular phone gripped tightly in her left hand. _Faith and Ariel banded together, what are the odds... Ah yes, and that young man Alex. No, that's not it. Xander? Yes... Xander Harris, that is him rightly. Hah, how overly-droll of his parents to butcher such a fine Christian name with such a horrid nomenclature... Not an issue, surely, just an annoyance. But, blast, after all this time I find the three of them working together to...to...what end?_

She halted and frowned thoughtfully as the pulsing orange flames spread across her right side and warmed her other arm. She looked down at it thoughtfully, watched the amber shadows criss-cross it's length, then the phone rang at last, echoing shrilly across the Chantry antechamber. She raised it to her lips and thumbed it alive, "It's about time you returned my message."

"_I do not answer to you._" came the cool reply, "_In fact, it is you who ultimately answers to me, considering what I did for you, my dear._"

"How could I forget?" she turned her back on the fire and smiled serenely into the flame-licked darkness of the room, "I will forever be in your personal debt, not to worry. But my call was not about that, it was about a more professional topic."

"_Indeed._"

"My followers have found two more candidates for you."

"_They have? Where? I thought your Oranak minions had stripped Manhattan dry of them._" there was a long pause, then "_Ah, of course. Let me guess, a blonde and a brunette. They were already mine._"

"Were being the operative word. Now they are mine."

"_You have them in the Chantry?_"

"No, but they have been tracked to a location in the New York industrial sector and one of my hunting parties has them well in hand. In fact, I just received a message from one of them mere moments ago, they are contained and overcome. Just new girls it seems, untrained and unskilled, easy marks for my Cronin."

"_Excellent! The usual finders fee of course, just tell me where they are and_-"

"Double."

"_What? Double? No. I don't think so_-"

"Double. Or I'll call Cronin and have him suck them dry to the very last drop, while you listen to their screams over the conference call."

There was a pause, then he chuckled darkly, "_I am reminded why I made you the subject of my first Extraction Ritual. Fine-fine, double then. They are all I need anyway, the next attempt will be the last one._"

"Giving up, are you? Pity..."

"_On the contrary, woman, I have it perfected now. I would suggest you prepare yourself for_-"

"Whatever." she cut him off, "What you do with the Slayers is of no consequence to me. Just make sure your soldiers have the money well in hand when they arrive." and she gave him the address.

"_Oh, you'll get your thirty pieces of silver, no worries there. In fact I'm going to pick up the birds myself, no more Initiative screw-ups._"

"Are you? Good. I will advise Cronin of your imminent arrival. One last thing, though..."

"_Yes?_" he was impatient to get going.

"Did you send my daughter, and two of her friends, one of them a Slayer named Faith, to another dimension?"

The longest pause yet echoed between them, then his careful reply scratched in her ear, "_...perhaps..._"

She smiled into the receiver, "Good-good, I thought it must have been you."

"_You...you aren't angry? Wait, the young blonde woman, that was Ariel? Ahhh, of _course_, it all makes sense now_-_ahem, sorry. But, you must be aware, that at the time I didn't know it was Ariel I was sending to an alternate reality. You must believe me_-"

"You are mistaken if you think I am angry, as I am not. In fact, I couldn't be more pleased. Now, shouldn't you be departing with my money?" and she broke the connection...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Gunsmoke, Faith could smell it. It's chemical stench stung her nostrils like she'd been snorting lines of sulphur and her ears were ringing from the revolver's retort, it was hard to hear anything else, and dots of white light danced in her corneas, she blinked and her lashes were wet from the blinding flash. And then it happened all over again, her mother died before her very eyes, while she just stood there, stood there and did_ NOTHING_,_ _she just_ LET IT HAPPEN _and_

"Faith!" growled Cronin, snapping her back to grim reality. Her eyes focused again, she looked at him blankly.

"Wha... What?" she struggled to get ahold of the current dire situation. _I didn't just stand there, no, I tried to stop it._ And she flexed her hand as it throbbed at the memory.

The goateed Clan leader crooked a hooded eye at her, "You would do well to pay attention, since I'm about to have you killed."

"Huh...killed?"

He shook his head in exasperation, then waved two of his followers toward her, "Enough of this foolishness, just kill her. The order was for two Slayers, not three, so-" the two bat-Hybrids screamed as Faith spun in a fast circle, stake flashing into their protruding chests, and dusted them both in under half a second.

Their gritty outlines still hung in the air as she came to a braking halt, facing Cronin once more, her expression still fixed in a mute expression that now _really_ angered him. His lips twisted into a sneer and he lashed down with a clawed hand, caught the infamous Slayer's younger sister by the hair and yanked her up beside him, pulled a knife from under his suit jacket, waved it before Hope's bruised and battered face.

"You are going to leave now, Faith,_ right_ now, or I will carve out this little girl's voice box and use the vocal cords to floss my fangs."

Faith didn't look at him, instead she fixed her gaze on the girl in his grasp, "How's Dad?"

"Haven't seen him for like three years."

"Oh."

Hope shrugged in Cronin's grip, "Well, wadda you expect? That he and me were livin it up, doin the daddy dearest routine? Puh-leaze..."

Her older sister stared her up-and-down, "I can't believe it, you're a Slayer..."

"I am? What's that?"

Faith looked about her, but saw no other girls but Hope and the blonde one slapping away from the grasping talons of the rest of the Hybrids. She frowned and looked back, "You, you're one. And so is the other chick. And me. We take down vampires, demons, it's a really long story-"

"And if you're the one who's gonna tell it, then cram it, sis." snapped Hope, glaring back at her older sibling, her eyes filled with hate, and seemingly oblivious to the fact that she was being held hostage by a vengeful vampire, "You always ran off at the mouth, it made me sick then, and it makes me wanna vomit now."

Faith's own brown eyes narrowed, "That's the way it's gonna be, huh?"

Hope nodded emphatically, "Yep, that's the way it's gonna be."

"Whatever then. Just watch your ass, 'cause I ain't gonna do it for you."

"Nuthins changed I see." the girl snapped back and Faith winced.

Cronin shook his head in amazement, "Have I crossed over into the Bizarro world, or what? I don't care if you two are related, are you both mentally challenged? Hello! Hostage situation here, ten of us, three of you, hello!" he pressed the knife to Hope's neck and snarled, "Okay, I'm going to bleed her, then maybe you will-" Faith moved forward, closed the gap in an instant, caught his wrist hard and twisted it back with a _snap!_ She yanked the knife free and tossed it away, then glad-handed the shocked vamp hard back into his Hybrid followers. Him and five of them went down with a crash on the ratty floorboards.

Faith reached under her top and pulled out a second stake, pressed it into her younger sister's grip, then glared down at the vampire struggling to get up, "Touch her again and I will shatter every bone in your undead body _before_ I stake your syphilitic ass, you get me?" and she slammed a kick into his jaw, knocking him back down to the floor again.

Claudia scampered up beside them and smiled nervously at her, "Um...hi."

"Hey, nice to meet ya. You okay?"

"Scared out of mind, but hey, so far my hearts still beating."

"Works for me. You know how to kill these freaks?"

The thin blonde teen nodded and Faith handed over her stake. Cronin and his brethren got back on their feet and spread out into a circle around them. "Um...don't you need this?" Claudia tried to hand the shard of carved pine back but the senior Slayer wouldn't take it, "I think you'd need a weapon too."

Faith turned away from her and shifted into a ready offensive position, "Hey, kid, I _am_ the weapon." and then the vampires charged them.

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Minerva's Bar and Grill..._

"...so I says to Mabel, I says-" John 'Boxer' Mosley fell silent, the fork over-burdened with bacon caught in his left fist freezing halfway to his mouth.

His friend Frankie Turner frowned in the midst of his steak burger, "Why'd you'se stop?"

"Uh..." he stared past the other man's shoulder out through the grease-stained window of the diner into the parking lot, "...thought I saw smoke coming out of my truck's pipes. Must be seein things..."

"I'll bet you are," chuckled Frankie, "especially since Mabel hit you with that frying pan. I dated her too, remember, Boxer, and so's I know she hits real-"

"Sonofabitch!" Boxer jumped to his feet in a clatter of dishes and cutlery and stormed out of the restaurant, "Hey! HEY! Get outa there!"

Frankie shot out the swinging doors and ground to a halt beside him on the gravel, "Jeez, Boxer, what the hecks goin...hey, who's da guy in your truck?"

The man in the driver's seat hunched down lower into the shadows of the cab and they couldn't make out his face, then his desperately searching hands at last found the right gear. The truck's engine roared and the front wheels spun hard.

"No! Stop!" howled Boxer, leaping forward for the cab, "The trailer isn't-" CRASH! the cab throttled off and the front half of the refrigeration trailer thudded down in a spray of gravel and dirt. Wheezing and sputtering, Boxer hoofed it after his fleeing truck but his three hundred pound bulk wasn't cooperating and he ended up leaning forward, hands on his knees and cursing the thief. Frankie reached him, face pale and together they watched the MACK vanish into the city.

"Who the heck steals a rig from a diner?" asked his friend.

"A dead man, _that's _who." snarled Boxer, his bloodshot eyes blazing. Then he gritted his teeth, "God-damn! I left Elsabelle sitting on the passenger seat!"

Frankie's bushy eyebrows went high, "No! Not Elsabelle!"

"Dead," growled the robbed man, "he's deader then Elvis, when I catch him..."

**End of Part II...**


	28. Chapter IX: Part III

_The Initiative's NYC Complex..._

The leader strode into the buzzing Operations Hanger, leather satchel in hand, a solid purpose to his step as he passed the long lines of lethal military machinery. Lt. Bannon turned from consulting with the Quarter Master beside a trio of armored Humvees and fell into step beside him, "Good news, sir?"

"The best. My contact in the vampire underground has located and corralled our two fugitives."

"Excellent." thrilled the wiccan laboratory technician so recently allied with him.

"Indeed." he agreed with a smirk from the depths of his woolen hood. He patted his case of banknotes, "We have brokered a deal and now all that's left is for me to pick them up."

Alyona gestured with her digital clipboard, "I take it the sector coordinates I received four minutes ago is their location."

"They are." he stopped before an equipment locker and pulled open a door, pulled a pair of taser-blasters free. He handed her one, then slung the other under his cloak.

"I thought as much," she cycled rapidly through her board's information, "and as such I have downloaded a schematic of the four square blocks surrounding the pick-up point." she handed it over and he studied it minutely, then looked to the line of attack helicopters, "I'm finished doing this piece-meal, I just do not have the luxury of time anymore, the deadline grows ever closer and my Infusion of power lessons hourly. We _must_ reacquire the Slayers today, right _now_. My hold on this facility grows weaker by the hour, I have maybe a week, perhaps two, and then my sway will _fail_."

"I agree." nodded the witch, "But such a show of force might risk exposure of the project."

"I don't care." he waved at the waiting line of soldiers and their commander nodded, began herding them into the closest pair of choppers.

She frowned, "This seems foolhardy."

"Again, not caring in the least. Once I have the Slayers and they are drained, we can complete the final ritual and then nothing in this world, nothing at _all_, can stop us." he climbed into the first aircraft as it began to slide on it's conveyor toward the platform lift.

Alyona jumped in beside him and nodded grimly, "Then I agree."

"How wonderful for you. Like I wouldn't have you shot if you didn't agree, my dear." he sneered, then crouched and headed for the cockpit...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Within the upper levels of the former Wilson-Schultz Bobby-Pin Manufactory..._

Ariel vaulted down the stairs of the factory's utility access, her new Nike crosstrainers a pink and white blur above the quivering hardwood.

_Whatever was damming back the flood of super-charged conflict down there on the ground floor has obviously burst, because now it sounds like somebody's recreating the Gulf War below,_ her psyche digested as she flew down the dark passageway, kicking up clouds of dust as she raced. So she gave up trying to be prowly-girl and doubled her pace, rounded the third floor landing and yanked out the radio as she dashed onto the next set of steps.

"Xander! You back yet?"

There was no response, just static. She scowled and stuffed the useless device back into her jacket, then jumped over the last three steps, landed on the second floor, spun to the left and sprinted for the-_WHAM!_ "UHHH!"

Ariel was closelined across the chest, causing her to flip over backwards and crash to the floor so hard she bit her tongue and nearly fractured her skull.

The world spun and she felt ready to vomit as a dark pair of figures leaned over her grinning savagely.

"...guh...that wasn't...very honorable of you..." she moaned, tried to sit-up.

She was kicked hard in the side and the force of the blow sent her flying to the right. She hit the wall, crashed through it in a spray of timber and paint chips, landed badly and rolled into a load-bearing cement column.

"Of course it wasn't honorable." said one of them, sounded female, as Ariel pushed a two-by-four off her chest and climbed unsteadily to her feet.

"Ugh..." she grunted in pain, "...but...but I thought you Initiative guys had a code or something."

"Maybe _they_ do," said the other, a man, "but then...we _aren't_ the Initiative." He caught her by the neck and hauled her into the air.

She blinked down at him in the thin illumination cast from painted-over windows on the other side of the abandoned office suite and her eyes went wide. He was a vampire! And from the looks of him he was no ordinary ghoul, not at all. The Dark Glyph glistening on his barred left shoulder left no room for denial.

Ariel's gut twisted, "Oh no..."

"Oh yes." and he whipped her around and flung her away, she spun through the air, pitched hard into the side of a half-collapsed desk, bending double and smacking her chin down on it's splintered top.

"Oranak..." she gasped as they charged toward her, murder in their eyes. _Oranak..._

That did it. Now she was pissed!

Her lips peeled back and her eyes sizzled with carnic power. Instinct and hatred took over her motor control and she sprang forward, sommersaulted over the desk, twisted round in mid-air and landed back the other way. She slapped palms to the wood and her hands flashed neon-pink, the desk exploded away from her like it had been fired from a torpedo tube! It rocketed into the male vamp, slamming into him like a wrecking ball and sending him _and_ it catapulting across the office to smash through the wall and out the side of the factory.

The other vampire clattered to a shocked halt, looked toward the gaping hole in the wall, then back to Ariel, who was rising up, hands crackling with barely-contained eroticized energy.

"Wha-What _are_ you?"

"Your death!" and the enraged Succubus charged the female vamp, caught her up by the shoulders and let loose. The vamp screamed then was gone in a cyclone of coralline fire. Ariel cranked round, fists balled, and took off at a run for the final set of stairs. Maybe two months ago she'd run away at the thought of confronting her Mother's forces, but not this time.

_NOT THIS TIME!_

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Below on the factory floor..._

It was nine bat-Hybrids and one Clan leader against three Slayers, and the battleground was dark and filled with obstacles. Which Faith and the vamps liked, while Claudia and Hope did not. Not that there was anything the amateur Slayers could do about it.

"Yah!" sixteen year-old Hope backhanded a shrieking half-vamp, half-bat across the face, then sprang into a one-palmed handstand and delivered a fast face-kick before the monster could recover. She continued the momentum into a side spin, landed with feet spread wide and torso low, ducked backwards out of the way of a fast slash from another vamp, then punched him hard in the solar-plexus, kicked his legs out from under him. She fell upon his leathery form as it plummeted to the floor in a spray of rusty hair pins.

There was a furious struggle for positioning, she slapped his winged-arms out of the way, kicked another vamp back when it tried to close on her, then drove the stake down into the thing's chest. There was a rush of furious sound and suddenly Hope was straddling nothing but dust, then her knees thumped to the floor and she grinned for the first time in days. _Heh, that was wicked cool!_

"Hope! Watch your back!" shouted Faith from the other side of the room, and the girl instinctively dodged forward, rolled out of the way of a swooping shadow as a fully transformed bat looped down to trap her in it's razor-sharp talons. She banged to a halt against a looming hunk of machinery, whipped up and flung the stake. It buzzsawed through the air and sank into the bat's bulging ribcage. It howled then was gone in a spray of dust.

"And that's two!" she jeered triumphantly as she got to her feet.

"No!" growled Faith as she traded blows with Cronin across the way, "That's a stake you no longer_ have_. There's still eight more of them, ya dork! What are ya gonna dust them with, harsh language?"

Hope whirled in her direction, fire in her eyes, "Shut-up! Like you've done any better! You can't even kill your first one!"

"That's because I'm going to kill _her_ first!" snarled Cronin, and he parried Faith's double-punch, deflected a high-kick with a turn of his shoulder, then got under her guard and slammed a fist into her stomach, bowling her backwards to crash into the side of a conveyor belt.

Hope made to charge to her sister's aid, despite how she despised the concept, but a twisted scream from Claudia in the opposite direction stopped her cold and she altered her trajectory to help out her new-found friend instead.

"First smart thing you've done so far!" snapped Faith as she caught the metal bars with her hands and swung a scissor-kick up to meet Cronin's growling charge.

"Bite me!" shot back her sister, then she was vaulting a wide gap in the floor and leaping into the thick of a furious flailing of wings and limbs.

She elbowed a Hybrid out of the way, grabbed the elongated ears of another and tossed her like nothing to crash into the wall, then spun into a cartwheel that landed her beside Claudia and the Hybrid she was struggling with, it's taloned right hand digging into her left which gripped her pine stake. Blood flowed freely from where the vamp was digging into her wrist and the girl was fighting not to scream in pain.

"Let her go, by Gawd, or I'll rip your arms clean off, ya get!"

The vamp just grinned and dug in harder, bent Claudia's arm backwards toward the breaking point, "Make me, girl." he grinned like a jack-o-lantern.

Two vamps loomed behind Hope and her eyes flicked back-and-forth, "Gimmeah break, ya doofiss, this ain't a Tarantino flick." and she snatched the stake from Claudia's fingers, swung it fast to the right, then blurred it to the left, returned to her forward stance. On either side of her the two vamps detonated, and the one grappling with Claudia gaped in surprise, "Holy..."

"Ya know it, freak." grinned Hope.

Claudia didn't hesitate now, she took full advantage of Hope's distraction and snapped free of her attacker's grasp, "Bastard!" then sprang at him, slamming fists down on his face and chest, railing into him like a maniac. The Hybrid stumbled backwards, batting at her desperately and managed to slap her off of him, she crashed backwards against a heap of trash bags. He turned away fast, Hope charged for him but missed as he sprang into the air and winged off up and out of range.

"That's right, ya queer! Run like the bitch you are!" Hope shouted after him, then she turned to help Claudia back to her feet. She had an arm around the girl's shoulders and was straightening up when three more Hybrids stepped from the shadows and closed on them.

"Is this ever...going to...to end?" breathed Claudia as Hope pushed her back against a bank of wire shaping machines and stepped forward, stake held at the ready.

"Doesn't look like it, now does it?" and she ducked under a blow and stabbed the first in the wing, "Take _that_, butt-ugly!", then spun and sent a kick into the side of the second. Then they were all around her and shrieking high-pitched and slashing for her with their long-nailed digits. She tried to evade them, to stake one, but got knocked in the head, then talons raked her cheek and back, she fell to one knee, the stake was slapped from her grip and one caught her shoulder-length hair and wrenched her head back.

She cried out and Claudia pushed off to come to her aid, but the third blocked her way and screeched into her face at the top of it's lungs. She slapped hands to sides of her head and screamed, then was smashed across the face. She spun away drunkenly and fell into the grips of a fourth figure.

"I'm gonna die..." she moaned as she looked up into the vampire's face.

"No, you're not." replied the vamp. Except it wasn't a vamp, it was a slim blonde woman wearing a stylishly-short oxblood leather jacket and jeans. Ariel shifted the young Slayer behind her and moved forward, high-kicked the Hybrid shrieking at her, cutting it's painful wail off completely. It snapped backwards and the half-demoness closed on it, slammed a brutal punch into it's gut, brought up a fast knee as it doubled over, snapping it's head back up, she caught it by the throat and grinned, "Mother taught you well, but then, she taught _me _better." crunch! her fingers met in the middle of it's neck and it was gone in a blast of grit.

She pushed through it and stepped up beside the two vamps feeding off of Hope. One was at the listing girl's neck, the other sucking from the leg he had propped up on his shoulder. Their eyes swiveled up to bear on her, she slapped palms on either of their shoulders and her hands flashed with pink energy, sending them blasting backwards. They both crashed into the wall and crumpled, Ariel caught the slumping girl and hefted her up in her arms.

"You okay?" she asked, eyes filled with concern.

"Uhhhh...I feel like...like pounded crap..." moaned the brunette.

Ariel's eyes narrowed. _That accent, that face, and_ "Pounded crap? Who _are_ you?"

"...Hope...muh name...it's Hope..."

_Hope? Hope and...Faith? Hot damn_-the opposite wall EXPLODED inwards in a roar of sheet metal and brick! Ariel looked round in shock to see the huge black-and-chrome shape of a MACK rig crashing inwards, wheels ripping up the floor and towering exhaust pipes pumping a steady stream of smoke into the air.

"One-by-one the penguins steal my sanity..." she moaned as the huge truck juggernaut'd through the largest bank of machinery and ran over a cowering Hybrid that was too surprised to try and dodge.

As the vampire was ground to meaty pulp under the mamoth steel-belted radials, the rig's brakes squealed and it jack-knifed to the left, rammed into a support column and came to a creaking halt. Everybody stopped fighting and stared as a third of the ceiling cracked loosed and collapsed down around the truck. Pipes, flooring and two-by-fours rained down in furious clatter, dust clouds broiled all about it, then a pair of desks plummeted free and twirled down to shatter one-after-another on the narrow hood of the truck. Then at long last the avalanche finally stopped.

Faith and Cronin, fists hanging limply at the ready, exchanged a glance, then looked back to the MACK as it's driver-side door swung back and Xander jumped free, a sawed-off shotgun gripped in his right hand and a wide grin splitting his face.

"Now was that awesome, or was that awesome!"

"You really need to find better sidekicks." said Cronin to the Slayer.

"Tell me about it." muttered Faith, then she scowled, turned back and punched him across the face, "Hey! Shut-up about my pal Harris!" _Wham!_ she clocked him in the ribs "That boy can kick vamp ass every day of the week!" spin-kick and _Crunch!_ "And _twice_ on Sundays!" head-butt _Thump!_ "He saved the world all by himself once, what the HELL have YOU done?" and she bent to the side and kicked Cronin square in the chest, sending him flying into the conveyor. He spun about and slammed stomach first into the wide track, grunted in pain.

The true Slayer ducked, came up with a long shard of wood Xander's dramatic entrance had provided, and grabbed Cronin from behind, wrenched him backwards, bending his head hard, "This is gonna feel _so_ good, yeah! You're such a loser, Cronin, I'm gonna make you wish your daddy had pulled out early!" and she pressed the makeshift stakes tip into the center of his chest.

But the vampire leader just grinned, "Maybe, Slayer, maybe someday. But not today." and to her utter shock he dissolved into a tight cloud of grey mist, sending her stumbling backwards. She straightened up, eyes wide, as he whirled about like a ghost and the outline of his goateed face winked at her, then dropped into the loose-planked floor and was gone.

"Oh jeez..." she muttered, then Winchester-toting Xander reached her and looked about eagerly, the lethal weapon panning dangerously in all directions. He grinned at her, "You did it! You staked that moron Cronin! Way to go!"

"No... I didn't..."

He frowned, "You didn't? But-But I thought I saw him dissolve."

She turned away and watched the last of the surviving Hybrids transform into bats and launch themselves out the break in the windows. Then the five of them were alone on the factory floor. Ariel strode up, followed by a pair of teenage girls supporting each other. Xander stared at them and smiled, "Our two new Slayers, I presume."

"You'd presume correctly." remarked Ariel, then she looked hard at Faith, "Hey, am I crazy, or is this girl Hope your sister?"

"What? Hah!" laughed Xander, "Sister, yeah right. Faith doesn't have a sister, so you're...crazy..." his eye went wide at the look on the Slayer's face, he gaped at her in disbelief, "What, you do? No you _don't_." his one eye blinked incredulously, "You do? _You_ have a sister?" he looked to the dark-haired girl. The resemblance was unmistakable and his astonishment was magnified ten-fold. _The same brown eyes,_ his flumoxed brain crackled out, _the same clefted chin, the same butt-kicking expression living permanently in her face..._

"Oh sweet Moses..."

"Shut-up Xander." snapped Faith, "Are you okay, sis?"

"Sis. Faith just called her sis." Xander shook his head, "I must have got a concussion when the MACK's airbag deployed."

"I cahn't feel my fingers'n'toes," said Hope, "so they may not still be there. But other then that, sure, I'm five-by-five."

"_I'll be dammed_-"

"Xander!" Faith sounded ready to bite through titanium, "Shut...the _hell_...up..." she turned away and headed for the gaping exit the rig had smashed in the wall, "We need to vacate now, and get them back to the Station, so stow the slack-jawed yokel routine and help Claudia."

Xander glared after her, "Hey, I'm the boss, remember? I get to say that kind of stuff, not you."

"How would you like me to rip out your tongue and jam it up your-"

"Right you are, boss, back to the Station we go." and he stuffed the 10-gauge in his coat's inside pocket then slipped an arm around Claudia's waist. She smiled at him gratefully, then they set off.

The five scrambled over the rubble and made it out onto the moonlit sidewalk. Faith looked around with distaste, "I hate the idea of walking all the way back to 86th Street, but until we spot a cab or somethin, that's the way it-" fat shafts of blue lightning crackled down and struck them all, the women screamed and howled, Xander gasped, everybody jerked and writhed in the cyanic maelstrom, then it was over and they all collapsed to the concrete...

**End of Part III...**


	29. Chapter IX: Part IV

_On the curb in front of the former Wilson-Schultz Bobby-Pin Manufactory..._

...there was a long drawn-out period where nothing happened, then with a rush of air and the muffled sound of swishing rotors, a jet-black military helicopter descended into view.

The meter-long taser cannon mounted on the undercarriage retracted into it's housing and then the formidable fighting transport landed in a squeal of hydraulic landing wheels. The side-door popped out and slid back, and a squad of black-fatigued Initiative troopers hustled forth, blasters at the ready.

"Secure the Slayers!" commanded the leader as he jumped out, followed by Lt. Bannon. Ten meters away the second customized attack copter landed in the center of the one-way street, it's engine noise also in stealth-mode. He waved a wide sleeve at his men, "Ignore the others, the ones we want are the dark-haired one there, and the younger blonde."

The soldiers moved forward amongst the face-down five and caught up the two teenagers, dragged them away. The men carted them over to their cloaked master and he reached down and caught a stunned-out Claudia by the hair, yanked her face up. He peeled back an eye-lid, then nodded, "Good, they're unharmed. Shackle them and inject a sedative. And put them in separate helies for transport, I don't want too many eggs in one basket, understood?"

"Yes, sir." the troupe split, Hope was carried past him into the one he'd come in, while the others took Claudia to the second.

He watched Hope as she vanished into the depths of the chopper, then decided Alyona was correct, there was no mistaking the girl, she had to be the sister of

"Faith!" exclaimed Lt. Bannon and he turned back fast, then gaped in mortified amazement as the Lieutenant rolled over the true Slayer herself.

His shadowed jaw twitched with incomprehension inside the depths of his hood, "How-It _can't_ be her! I sent her and the others on a one-way trip to Arboria more then a month ago!"

"It's that the man with the eye-patch too, and the blonde half-demon." Bannon nudged the two over with her boot, then looked up at her superior with a frown, "Obviously they found a way back."

Xander groaned and his one eye blinked, he raised his head painfully and opened it, beheld the tall, narrow woman in black fatigues standing over him. _Wha-What happened? Uhhh, every muscle feels like it's been ripped out and replaced with molten steel...and who's the schoolmarm?_

Bannon looked down at him, "This one's coming round." her eyes narrowed, "Wait one second, I recognize him from Initiative records, his name is-"

"-Xander Harris, I do believe." completed the robed leader, "Yes, if it indeed is him, then we've already had the displeasure of meeting before."

Xander propped himself up, he knew that voice, that arrogant cockney lilt that made him want to punch the man out, it was "Rayne? What the-_you!_ Wha-_you're_ the one behind all of this?"

And Ethan Rayne pushed back his hood and grinned darkly, "So it _is_ ol' Ripper's houseboy. I see Buffy Summers has let you off her leash, boy, but it didn't take you long to find another Slayer to pant after."

Xander climbed to his feet and glared at the Brit who had plagued him and his friends back in Sunnydale time-and-time-again, then made to charge him. But Bannon leveled a Glock-18 at his head, "Hold up now, Mr. Harris." she clicked the safety off, "You wouldn't want to do anything rash."

He glanced side-long at her, then back to Rayne, "But you were locked away, Giles told me all about it, after you turned him into a Fyarl demon. Buffy and Riley hunted you down and beat you like a bitch until you changed Giles back to human, and then Riley sent you to an Initiative...detention...facility... ...Ohhhhh..." _Aw, sonofabitch..._

Ethan nodded with a smirk, "Yes, they did. And a nicer gift has never been given to me in all my life. Ripper was a fool to think any prison could hold somebody as powerful as I. And now thanks to the Slayers he has sworn to protect, the whole world is about to pay the price for my incarceration, a _thousand_ times over." and he climbed back into the copter.

Lt. Bannon stepped back, keeping the gun trained on Xander, and crossed the sidewalk, then climbed in after her leader. Ethan grinned across at him, "Remember this moment, boy, it's when you lost. I have four Slayers now, and that's all I need. Before the sun rises this world will be forever changed, and you will join the rest of the human population in an unending servitude to _me_." and the door slammed shut, the copter rose up with a whisper of blades and ascended into the night sky.

Xander's hand dived into his jacket, came back with the stunted shotgun, he raised it two handed and sighted up at the shrinking helicopter. With a groan and a creek of tendons, Faith rose up beside him, followed by Ariel. She blinked at him unsteadily, then looked to his weapon, "What are you...what are you doin?"

"The Initiative! They took Hope, she's in that copter!"

Faith's eyes saucered she looked up horrified, then back down at him, grabbed the gun out of his hands, "And, what? Are you going to shoot it down?"

He glared at her and grabbed the shotgun back, "I don't know! What would you have me do? Ethan said two more Slayers is all he needs to do his final ritual, and that means he's going to kill her tonight, so-"

"Where's Claudia?" demanded Ariel, and Xander looked to the other helicopter just starting to rise. She and Faith looked at each other, then they exploded forward and sprinted like bats out of hell down the sidewalk.

The pilot saw them coming and swung the copter around. Side cannons extended with a whir-click and the chopper's 30mm chain guns levered into place.

"Split up!" shouted the Slayer and the two women parted, her to the left, Ariel to the right. The twin guns let loose with an unholy ratchet and machine-gunned down the sidewalk between them in a roar of spitting concrete and rocketing slugs! Xander dodged out of the way just in time, as the heavy barrage strafed by him by mere inches. He crashed into the side of the factory, whirled about and raised the Winchester, no hesitation now. Nobody stole Slayers out from under his care, and certainly not Faith's sister.

"GIVE HER BACK!" he howled and his finger yanked back on the trigger. The shotgun with the name Elsabelle wood-burned into it's stock roared like thunder in his hand and a 10-gauge slug ripped across the gap and blasted into the copter's canopy. The helmeted pilot started and winced back, as the glass before him spider-webbed. But it was bullet-proof and held.

Too bad it wasn't Slayer-proof.

Faith sprang high and somersaulted over the rattling left-side machine gun, landed on it's support strut, spun back and _punched_ through the left side of the canopy like it was cardboard. She shouldered through it in a spray of shards and caught the pilot by his neck, "Outa the way, fly-boy!" then she rammed his head up into the ceiling. He slumped and she tossed him into the back, then looked down at the console, eyes darting for the weapons controls. But the side-guns had flicked off the moment the pilot had released the control stick, so she turned about and faced the line of furious soldiers crowded into the passenger compartment. They hefted their tasers and took aim-the side-door wrenched back in a discharge of rose energy, then Ariel jumped in with them.

"I love a man in uniform!" she snarled and grabbed two rifle barrels and yanked them away from their owners, tossed them out the side of the chopper then swung back and kicked a third soldier in the chest, bowling him backwards into the side of the copter. Faith charged into the fray and her fists and feet were a blur, between them the troopers never had a snowball's chance in hell.

Xander stared upwards as dark-clad bodies began falling all around him, he stepped on the closest one's chest, bent at the knee, then sprang upwards and caught the arm Faith held down for him. She hauled him up and into the vibrating airship, he straightened up and looked around, saw Ariel struggling with the unconscious Claudia's shackles, then looked to Faith.

She glared him down, "You're all 'all-you-can-be' military-wise, right? Willow told me you downloaded everything U.S. Army a few years back, thanks to some wack-job magic spell."

_Ethan Rayne's spell, ironically_, he mused darkly, then stepped boldly passed the knocked-cold pilot lying on the floor and slipped into the the man's former chair. He looked about the console, gaze taking it all in, while internally he dredged up everything he could remember being programmed about this kind of machine. _That Halloween night I could drive tanks, hotwire any ground vehicle, field-strip an M-16, kill a man seventeen different ways without making a single sound, and_-_No. Not could. I still _can_. Because I have to, or Hope dies..._

"So...can you fly it?" Faith near-begged, her Boston accent tinged with desperation.

Xander caught up the headset and sat it firmly down over his skull, grabbed onto the control stick and slid his feet into the control pedals. The copter rose up, under his complete control, then he sent it flying forward down the street. It rotored upwards and above the line of factories and warehouses, he nosed it forward and shifted it toward maximum speed, kicking in the afterburners. The industrial district blurred by beneath him and he gritted his teeth in dark determination.

"Yeah. I can fly it." he said in a voice loaded with wrath and anger, "And I'm gonna fly it right down Ethan Rayne's throat!"

The black chopper rocketed off across the nocturnal vista of New York City, and from the high roof of a textile factory a line of red-eyed bats watched it go...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Nine minutes later, thirty meters below the streets of NYC..._

"Eagle's Nest to Striker-Two. Come in Striker-Two."

...

"Repeat: Eagle's Nest to Striker-Two. Come in Striker-Two."

...

"Send out a ping, check their GPS. Maybe-"

"_Striker-Two to Eagle's Nest. Um, go ahead. Over._"

"Striker-Two, why are you deviating from the pre-proscribed course?"

"_Uh, we're not._"

"Negative Striker-Two, you are straying into NYPD restricted airspace. Return to your pre-proscribed course and altitude or you may compromise the security of the retrieval mission."

"_Oh, you're right. Sorry! Took a wrong turn near the Empire State Building, my mistake, heh._"

"Please repeat. Did you say Empire State?"

"_Xander! The Empire State Building is on the other side of town!_"

"_It is? Oops. Wait, Ariel, shhh!_"

"...Striker-Two... The Sun is shining..."

"_Huh? No it's not, it's night time._"

"_Harris, you dweeb, it's a code or sumthin._"

"Striker-Two... The Sun is shining..."

"_Oh! Um, let's see...but the ice is slippery?_"

"Eagle's Nest to Striker-One. Be aware, Striker-Two has been compromised. Repeat, Striker-Two has been compromised."

"_What? No! We haven't! Everything's A-O-K, I swear!_"

"Launching Counterstrike, repeat, launching Counterstrike. Transfer all radio's to Secondary Frequency."

"_Wait_-"

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_In the cockpit of the hijacked Initiative helicopter..._

The seven million dollar rapid-deployment helicopter soared high above the business district, it's engine and rotors muffled by a stealth system that cost easily twice that. The loudest noise onboard came from wind whistling through the hole in the right-side cockpit glass. Well, almost the loudest noise.

"Counterstrike? What do they mean Counterstrike? Like that bad Canadian spy-show on Showcase?" exclaimed Xander Harris as he fought to no avail to reconnect with the Initiative HQ, wherever the hell it was. _Jeez, I hope the TV show's what they meant, even if Christopher Plumber gives me the wiggans, but something tells me they mean we're gonna go bye-bye now..._

Ariel, in the co-pilot's chair beside him, put a hand on his shoulder and tried to settle his frayed nerves. _Not like he doesn't already have enough pressure on him, trying to fly a helicopter based on false memories put there by some supposed Halloween spell._ "Look, I'm sure it means nothing. But hey, perhaps we should find a place to land. Then we can regroup and plan our next move."

"I second that motion." called out Claudia weakly from the back. They had located a counteractant to the sedative she'd been given and it was working in leaps and bounds, "Yeah...lets go home. Home is...good..." her eyes fluttered and she gagged.

"No!" Faith stepped over the knocked-out pilot lying face-down on the floor and pushed past Ariel into the narrow cockpit, "No landing! No putting down! You just catch up to this prick Rayne's chopper, and let me get close enough to jump aboard!"

The one-eyed pilot glanced side-long at her, "Jump aboard? You're a Slayer, not a Bulletproof Monk. The plan was to tail the other copter and infiltrate the Initiative's base of operations. Or something along that line. You know, Metal Gear: Solid our way in."

"Now who's deluding themselves." snorted Faith, "Look, just get me alongside'em, and I'll do the rest."

"Faith, this is a very bad idea." Ariel frowned, "We are in way over our heads here, and there's more at stake then just your sister-"

The Slayer was in her face in a flash, "Is it _your_ sister they've got drugged and in chains over there?"

"Uh...no..."

"Is it _your_ sister they're gonna drain of all her blood for some psycho ceremony?"

"No..."

"Then keep your trap shut."

Ariel scowled and opened her mouth to reply, but the chopper's console started to klaxon loudly and stole her attention away. She looked down at the flashing red lights, "What is it? What's wrong?"

"I don't know." Xander started hitting buttons and turning knobs, and the half-demoness prayed it wasn't at random.

"I think... I think..."

"Ya think what!" growled Faith.

"I think..." and he stared out through the canopy and into the distance, "I think we're in deep crap..."

They followed his gaze and saw across the Hudson River a pair of red blinking lights closing fast on their position. The klaxon suddenly silenced as Xander at last found the GPS controls. A small display on the console came alive and a tactical grid phased into view. They were at the center, and coming in from the North-West was

"Striker-Three and Four." read Ariel, and she looked up at Faith from her seat.

The dark-haired warrior stared darkly for a long moment at the expanding lights, then swore under her breath, "Screw it, let's get outa here."

"Easier said then done." snapped Xander as he reached for his restraint belts, "Everybody strap themselves in, this is gonna be bumpy."

Faith vanished back into the passenger compartment, as Ariel struggled for her own belts. She snapped them closed across her chest, then reached over and squeezed Xander's arm tightly, "Good luck."

"Thanks. Gonna need it." and he yanked the stick sharply to the left and back, sending the chopper whipping down to the right. It banked around the side of a tall skyscraper, then rocketed forward into a narrow corridor of glass and steel. On the GPS screen, a third indicator appeared and zoomed after them, moving three times as fast as the closing attack choppers. The two enemy copters in turn peeled off and headed away in retreat. Xander licked his lips and swallowed. _Oh brother..._

Ariel's eyes went wide, "Is that-"

"Yeah, it is. Hang on!" he shouted, then sent them flying in a tight arc toward the streets. The rotor ratcheted madly and the chopper nosed down into a tight sixty-degree angle. He swept them back-and-forth, weaving with all the skill his magically-downloaded abilities could muster.

And in the distance, the pair of heat-seeking Hellfire missiles the pair of helicopters had launched closed on them...

**End of Part IV...**


	30. Chapter IX: Part V

_Back in the present and high above Manhattan..._

"I failed her again. I let her get away from me _again_." mumbled Faith as she stared out the open side-door of the chopper, watching as the world inverted and office buildings blurred past.

She was belted in beside Claudia as the Initiative chopper rattled dangerously around them, and they were both plastered back against their seats, though Faith was faring far better then the junior Slayer. Because she really didn't give a crap. Her stomach was flip-flopping but she didn't know if it was from the terrific g-forces, or from the guilt flooding her senses like blood into a sponge.

_I don't deserve to live..._

The rocketing engine overcame the stealth suppressors and the smothering compartment roared with sound. Their vision started to blur. Claudia was crying. Faith was-they were wrenched hard to the right and for a dizzying moment they were upside-down, then the copter was corkscrewing and the unconscious pilot who had been left on the floor was suddenly airborne and flew backwards toward the open door as if being dragged out by a monstrous vacuum, he-Faith's hand snapped up in a blur and caught his leg, wrenched him back and slammed him down onto a bench.

As they at last righted she snapped restraints down around him, then checked his pulse. _Still there, lucky boy. I wonder if Hope is so lucky right about_..._now_... Her eyes narrowed and she fought the urge to snap the helmeted man's neck for his part in all of this.

_With Slayer's blood...like they're gonna do with Hope..._

"Here it comes!" hollered Xander, "This is gonna be close!" and he wrenched the stick to the right, then counted to three and a half and whipped it back to the left-the missile zagged past the cockpit window, Ariel's eyes crossed, then Xander was mashing the accelerator pedal and the missile slammed into the side of an office building and they were rocketing away from the explosion in a flash of afterburners and they were almost clear and-_they were clear!_

"WOOOO-HOOOO!" Xander pounded the console exuberantly, then grabbed the stick and swung them out of their spin. He looked to Ariel, "Can I fly or can I FLY!"

But she was looking out her side of the half-smashed glass in horror, "XANDER! Two missiles! Not one! TWO!"

He gawked past her and saw the projectile winging around toward them in the distance, an almighty fist come forth to smash them into fiery jelly. His mind boggled and he tried to do four things at once, thus succeeding in only locking the copter into hover mode. "Oh damn." he gulped.

"Oh crap." moaned Ariel and she grabbed his hand tight, looked at him, "I love you."

"Wha-you do?" he scowled, "If you really loved me then you would be _blasting that thing with your horny fireballs_!"

"What? Oh!" and she whipped around and-but Faith was faster!

She raised the Glock she'd torn from the pilot's holster and shut one eye "How do ya like _this_!" and fired-fired-fired!

She only need the first shot.

_BOOOOOOM!_ the missile detonated ten meters away and the fireball shockwaved out, slammed into the side of the chopper. Faith was tossed backwards and slammed into the other side of the fuselage, cracked her head and went down like a sack of doorknobs. Ariel screamed as fire raked her face and a spinning chunk of shrapnel buzzed a millimeter past her nose and buried itself in Xander's shoulder. Blood sprayed and he fell forward onto the stick, wrenching it down and into the console.

The hover mode was disengaged. The chopper nosed into a power-dive and plunged downwards at a fantastic speed. Down-and-down it hurtled and the dark streets rose up toward them at a dizzying rate. Ariel knew something horrible was happening but she was blinded by the explosion, "Xander! XANDER! Please!" and she caught onto his limp arm, tried to-she and him were pushed apart so hard they deflected off their windows, a hand grabbed the stick and yanked it back.

The copter righted in a roar of thrust and screamed down the length of the street between two lanes of roaring traffic, less then three meters from the asphalt, then they were buzzing to the left and ground to a halt overtop a parking lot...

...the world seemed to waver, then refocus...

They hung in midair for a long moment, then Ariel opened her eyes and looked around dazed. Claudia, her face whiter then virgin snow, was staring blankly out through the cracked cockpit window at a billboard selling life insurance only meters away. Ariel looked down and saw the girl's fingers were wrapped around the control stick.

"Did...did I...did I do it right?" mumbled Claudia absently, her eyes blinking fast.

"Don't ask me," replied Ariel, "I'm just the stewardess."

"Gonna... Gonna collapse now."

"Go right ahead."

And Claudia's eyes rolled back and she fell into Ariel's arms...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Three hours later..._

"Hey! Watch it!" growled the uniformed beat-cop as the tousle-headed boy in the stained New York Giant's jersey skidded into him. He caught the boy's shoulders and pushed him back, glared down at him through tinted sunglasses, "You can't be here, kid, this a crime scene."

The grubby-faced street kid shook his head, then scowled at the officer, "Kid?" he roughly shook out of his grip, a defiant look creasing his freckled face, "Touch me again, pig, and my Dad'll sue you so hard your grandkids'll be paying for my retirement checks."

The cop laughed, "Just beat it, alright? You've been drinkin too much Red Bull there, son, but it sure don't give you wings. Don't make me have to call your folks. Now get!" and he whipped him around and thrust him away, then turned back to monitoring the gawking night-time crowd. Any good cop would have noticed and commented on the bad bruises pulsing on the kid's face, but then Podeski wasn't a good cop.

The fourteen year-old sneered at the tall officer's back for a long moment, then gave him the finger and slowly turned away. He stuffed balled fists into the pockets of his faded jeans then looked toward the milling crowd. Despite his growing desire to seek out breakfast in some form or another, his curiosity got the better of him and he moved forward, knifed his way through the mob of towering adults-_wallet, wallet, who's got a wallet they don't need_-and then at last reached the other side, stuffing a fat billfold into his jeans that had protruded a bit too much from a business man's blazer pocket.

Yellow crime scene tape flapped in the cool night air, condoning off the front of a tall office building. A heap of twisted debris was piled on the sidewalk. The kid looked up the length of the scraper and near the top he saw a gaping hole had been blasted out of it. Emergency helicopters hovered around it, spraying foam into the smoking chasm of glass and steel.

_Crime scene?_ he frowned deeply. _Looks more like a fire. Or maybe it was an explosion, perhaps from a_

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

"-_terrorist attack, that's what the Mayor's Office is calling it, at least for now._" the twenty-something bottled-blonde said into her microphone, as she stood before the wreckage, cops and emergency crews milling behind her.

"_While no known militia or political group hostile to the United States have yet claimed responsibility, a reliable source close to KVYZ Newsbreak has already provided evidence showing that the explosion may have been actually the result of a high-powered ballistic missile, fired into the side of the uptown building just hours ago._"

She paused to allow time for that to set in, then frowned expressively, "_This is Miranda Clarke for KVYZ. Now back to Kyle Jennings at the Newsbreak desk_-" the television clicked off, Cronin turned away from it and stared sullenly across the study at his leader.

"See, it is as I told you, Mistress. The Initiative burst into the factory in a hail of gunfire and took the Slayers away from us. There was nothing we could do."

"We?" she said wrathfully, "You mean _you_. Again, Cronin, you have failed me. First you failed to kill Faith and her allies at Club Odessa, and now you allow the Initiative to take the two girls off your hands without getting the payment for which we're owed."

"B-But, you're in tight with their leader," he said beseechingly, as she reached to her desk and opened a leather case there, "why can't you just call him and tell him he still owes you the money?" despite his obvious fear at what she was going to do to him, he couldn't help but add a disgusted tone to the last part of the sentence. _Money, how vulgar. How is it that this human has come to lead us, when all she cares about is material gains?_

But the woman was anything if not intuitive and she read his expression and veiled words like an open book, "The payment isn't what is important here, Cronin, your disloyalty _is_."

She sneered darkly and the white-haired vampire instantly realized his mistake, "And yes, I am going to contact him," she sarcastically continued, "I need the money to purchase the research and books that fuels the goals of _your_ Clan, as you seem to constantly forget. What, did you think I materialized the location of that Guggenheim painting out of mid-air? Hardly, the information that lead to the Picasso's location, and to the Dark Glyphs you and your fellow vamps are enjoying now, it all came as a benefit of Ethan Rayne's coffers. So _don't _get snooty with me, dear boy."

She scowled at him and he shrugged away from her disapproval, "But that is all beside the point. I gave you an order and once again you have disappointed me. And even after I granted you the chance to be branded with a new Dark Glyph, the Discipline of Mist no less, _after_ you allowed the first one to be destroyed by Faith." she withdrew the small crossbow and fitted it with a bolt. Cronin's eyes widened.

"Wait! Please, Mistress, remember that I was the one who brought you painting in the first place! I brought you the means to manufacture the Discipline Brands!"

"One right corrects two wrongs?" she shook her head, "Very bad math, in my educated opinion." and she took aim for his chest.

He backed up and his body began to fade to mist, but she uttered a phrase in Latin and the transmogrification stopped. He gasped and looked down at his very-solid hand, "Wha-how?"

She grinned, "You really didn't think I would be fool enough to grant you a power I could not control, did you Cronin? Perish the thought." and she squeezed the trigger-

"WAIT! The Slayer! F-Faith! It was Faith!"

Her aim wavered, her eyes narrowed, "Faith? What are you jabbering about?"

He dropped to his knees, grasped his hands in pontification, "She was the one who broke in, not the Initiative! Yes, the soldiers showed up later, but Faith had already beaten us back by then. They came out of nowhere-"

"Faith? Faith was there?" her cold eyes narrowed, "But...but she couldn't have been. Ethan assured me..." then her eyes flashed madly, "Wait, _they_ came out of nowhere? They! As in Faith _and_ her two friends?"

"Uh...yes?"

"The blonde girl with the carnic energy powers."

He nodded, wincing slightly at the memory of what the girl, disguised as one of his people, had done to him little over a month ago. He still had the burn scars on his chest. _Seems I need to settle up with both her and Faith, they're going to pay if it's the last thing I do..._

"That bastard Rayne!" his Mistress raged, "I'm going to drag him out of that badger-hole in the ground he calls a Complex and slit his treacherous throat! He _lied_ to me-wait, YOU lied to me!" she stood and tossed the crossbow back on the desk, crossed the floor and caught the kneeling vampire by the hair with her good hand, wrenched his head back and glared down at his quivering face.

"Faith shows up at the factory and takes the Slayers away from you and you don't even _tell_ me about it?"

"I-I-I-one of our followers, Ativus! One of the Disciples of Bat! He is trailing Faith and the others as we speak-"

"But you didn't tell me right away!" she twisted her hold, pulling clumps of hair out as he hissed in agony, "What, you didn't think it was _important_? Let alone that I wouldn't eventually find out? Oh, I'm not going to just kill you now, Cronin, noooo, now I'm going to-" her pocket rang and she scowled, then let go of his white hair, turned away and pulled out her cell. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves, it didn't work in the least, then just thumbed the slim phone on and help it up to her blonde-haired head, "Yes?"

She listened for more then a minute, then "I see. One moment." she looked back to Cronin who was still on his knees, "Ativus is trailing them? He can find them?" the vamp nodded emphatically. She turned back to the phone, "We have a line on them. But now the price is tripled, and I make the trade personally. I come to you, no exceptions...good." and she ended the call, turned back, caught Cronin by what was left of his hair and wrenched him back to his feet.

She slapped him hard across the face then caught his chin so tight blood welled from where her long fingernails bit into his cheek, "This is your final opportunity, there will not be another." and she uttered the counter-phrase, returning his power to Mist.

"I un-understand! Thank-you Mistress, thank-you!"

She released him and headed for the coatrack beside the long line of oaken bookshelves, "The Initiative has had a setback in transporting the Slayers back to their Complex." she struggled into a tweed overcoat, then returned to her desk and pocketed the crossbow, began opening drawers and taking out more objects.

"A setback?" Cronin watched her actions in confusion as she swung a picture back on the wall and spun the chromed dial of a wall safe.

"Yes, a setback. One of their helicopters was hijacked in transit and one of the Slayers taken by our three young friends." she took out a circular object bundled in black silk then slipped it in her coat pocket, shut the safe once more, "Ethan didn't bother to explain _how_ Faith and...the others...are even back in this reality, but it is of no consequence now."

"Um...why are you...why are you...you aren't actually _leaving_ the Chantry, are y-"

She caught up a small tome from a shelf then stormed past him for the door, "Last chance, Cronin. Tonight, either Faith dies, or _you _do..."

**End of Part V...**


	31. Chapter IX: Part VI

_Across town..._

Eddie the cabbie was cruising down Broadway under the pale-yellow light of streetlamps, on his way to pick up an uptown fare, when he spotted her out of the corner of his eye, waving frantically at him from a dark alleyway.

She was young, blonde and slim, though still curvy enough for his tastes, disheveled a bit in a slightly charred oxblood leather jacket and jeans, and he wished he could stop but his beacon was off and he had no choice. So he kept on going and prepared to turn right, then-then he _had _to turn around, his heart pounded and his breath caught in his throat like he'd been punched in the gut by Mike Tyson.

He gasped and spun the wheel sharply, whipping the yellow cab into a tight u-turn. Cars in two lanes laid on the horn but he kept on going, sending them squealing and slamming brakes frantically. But Eddie saw none of it, all he could see in his now tunnel-of-love vision was _her_. He loved her dearly and she needed him. _What was her name again? Eh, it doesn't matter!_

"I'm comin, darlin!" he shouted, then screeched to a halt, bumped up onto the curb beside the alley.

Claudia blinked at Ariel in confusion, "This cab driver is a friend of yours?"

"Um...in a way..."

The door slammed back and Eddie lurched out, eyes shinning, "Baby! Are you okay? Who hurt you? Tell me! I'll kill'em!"

"Nobody hurt me, but my friends are hurt. Can you-"

"Anything!" and he dashed past her into the alley, Claudia staring after him in bewilderment.

"He on something?"

Ariel chose not to answer and as she turned away the young Slayer could swear a rosy light was spangling across her eyes. Then she followed and together the three of them carried the unconscious Xander and Faith into the cab, then climbed in after them. Claudia took shotgun while Ariel was in the back, the two wounded on either side of her cradled in her tight embrace, "Go!" she snapped.

"Sure!" grinned Eddie, "My place is only ten minutes away!"

"Your place?" Claudia cocked an eye at him, "Are you on crack?"

"Beth Israel Medical Center! NOW!" shouted Ariel, "Or it's over between us!"

Eddie left a trail of smoking rubber on the sidewalk.

Across the street, under the shadow of canopied store-front, a man in grey leather watched the cab vanish around the turn, then dialed his cell.

"...Cronin? It's Ativus. They left the helicopter hidden inside an abandoned garage and are now on their way to a hospital. I think one or more may be seriously injured. The Slayer? Which one? No, the younger one seems in good health. ...yes, Beth Israel, it's the closest. All right, I'll meet you there."

He pocketed the phone, then stepped back into the shadows of the store-front. There was the rustle of mutating flesh and then with a screech a monstrous bat-form lept skyward in a blur of leathery wings...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_The Complex..._

"That was odd." Ethan Rayne stared at the receiver for a long moment, then shrugged and hung up the Conference Room phone. He leaned back in the padded leather office chair and drummed fingers on his chin thoughtfully.

Alyona looked up from her file folder, "Is there a problem?"

He shook his head, reached for his tea, "Not really. My Oranak contact just didn't seemed phased when I informed her that her daughter was back." his thick eyebrows knitted into one, his jaw twitched, "And here I thought she'd be the only one wanting to know even more then I just how exactly they managed it..."

"Perhaps it has something to do with the missing multiscanner." Bannon suggested as he sipped his steaming beverage, "Remember, it's a distinct possibility that it is in Faith's possession."

He snorted, "I've read her profile, she is barely competent to program a VCR, let alone work a piece of mage-tech of that level."

"Then perhaps one of the others."

"Ripper's gopher and the demon half-breed?" he chuckled laconically, "They would have a hard time spelling their own names. Though possibly they could operate it, if only in a basic mode. But as to how they managed to return from exile, somebody must have helped them get back. Somebody powerful."

"This Ripper person?"

"Him? No... Transdimensional travel is _far_ beyond his keening. I mean, even I wouldn't be capable of it without the Infusion."

"No. I meant, who is he?"

Rayne grinned darkly, "A deluded idiot who I've clashed with here and there. My connections list him as firmly entrenched in London. Nobody of consequence, though he has acquaintances with those who might be of a slight danger."

"Perhaps elimination is the best plan."

"Of Ripper?" he laughed a wry chuckle, "Heh, that would be overkill. In fact, I plan to look him up once Phase Three has been completed and this world bows to us. I owe him, owe him dearly." his eyes hardened, "We shall see how _he_ enjoys three years in solitary confinement. Or better yet thirty. And without his eyes or ears."

Alyona fought not to snap at him. _He really is wrapped up in his vengeance, and it is consuming his focus, something I need to keep a close eye on, I think..._

She pursed her lips, kept her voice as level as possible, "Actually, I meant terminating the satellite uplink, so if they have the multiscanner it would be rendered useless."

He blinked out of his fantasies of revenge, then shook his head at her suggestion, "No, that might alert the other Initiative enclaves, and add extra hassle. No, for now we need to concentrate on securing the fourth Slayer. And if what my contact with Oranak says is true, that should happen soon. No, we will wait and prepare for her arrival."

_He's making a mistake_, the witch frowned but he didn't see it, then she decided to let it go for now. Instead, she looked back to her report, "What if the rest of the Initiative suspects us of having a hand in the missile attack?"

Ethan stood and caught up his cloak, shrugged it on, "They're the government, they follow rules and protocols, especially these Americans. By the time they get around to looking us up, it will all be far too late." he headed out the door, "I'm going to poke the girl Hope with sharp objects just for the fun of it. Care to join me?"

"In a minute, I just need to finish up with this..." and she watched him go, her expression carefully neutral. Once the door was shut behind him and a full minute had passed, she stood and moved to it, locked it, then turned away. From her pocket Bannon pulled a slim silver satphone, dialed it then raised it to her ear. There was a series of tones, then a man's voice answered in Russian, "_Privet?_"

"Yuri? Alyona..." she listened, then "_Vsyo pad kontrolem_... _Net_. _Net_... _Da_."

The man gave further instructions and she committed them to memory, "..._Polozhis` na menya_. _Vsyo pad kontrolem_. _Da_, _do vstrechi_." and she disconnected. She pocketed the phone, then stared at the darkened wall screen for a long moment.

_This waiting for the vampires to do the dirty work just isn't going to cut it_, she decided, _there are too many uncontrollable factors and Rayne will most likely miss his deadline, then we are back to square one. No, I must go proactive. The final video telemetry from the second Hellfire suggested that while Slayer-Zero and the others escaped with the helicopter there may have been one or more wounded. Which means perhaps Faith is among those hurt. Which means a hospital. Which means_...

Alyona tapped a command into her digital clipboard and began calling up emergency room admissions lists for all local hospitals in the last four hours...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_The Beth Israel Medical Center..._

The two towheaded young women stared through the polarized glass into the darkened CAT Chamber, as Faith conveyered on her back into the massive scanning tank. The white platform halted, with her submerged into it's canon-like depths up to her waist, and it's core lit-up green as x-rays poured into the unconscious Slayer. Back at the observation window, Claudia looked away and fixed Ariel with a calculating stare. After a long moment of concerned observation the older girl turned to bear on the younger one.

"What?" Ariel asked innocently, knowing what was coming.

"Don't you 'what' me. I want to know how you do it."

"Do what?"

Claudia lowered her voice as a Nurse walked by, "How you make guys do that." her pale brow knitted, "Or maybe it's women too. I don't know, but how?"

"Um...do what?" Ariel went stone-faced. _You know, there was a time when nobody ever caught me using my powers, but now it seems to happen every day. I should have never come to this city, I should have stayed near home in Europe, not come here and tried to blend in, learned to lose my accent and the rest. Of course, then I would have never met Faith. Or...Xander..._

"You seriously think I'm _that _mentally deficient?" asked Claudia.

Ariel looked back-and-forth, then lowered her own tone, "Look, it's complicated. It's not like _you _are what anybody would call normal. I mean, you're a Slayer."

"So I keep hearing."

"Okay, you seem calm about that. So here it is: I'm...I'm half-demon." and she steeled herself for recriminations, and possibly violence.

But instead the teen's eyebrows went up and a grin curled her bruised lips, "Really? Wow! You're the first one I've met, half or otherwise. Well, except for vampires."

Ariel snorted, "They are barely demons, and the lowest breed around, trust me. But my point, Claudia, is that you as a Slayer are by nature and ability a demon hunter. But I'm not _that_ kind of demon."

"That kind?"

"You know, all slime and scales and eating hearts and sacrificing virgins."

"Ugh, they really do have scales and slime?"

She nodded, "Yeah, some do. But I'm half-human and never asked to be the way I am. And I fight on _your_ side. Don't forget this, it's important. Not every supernatural being you meet will be evil. There's alot of grey area."

"Even with vampires?"

"Well, no. Kill them without mercy, I recommend. Well, there's this one good one Faith talked about once, out in LA, but he's supposedly the only one."

"What's his name? Um, in case I, like, run into him down the road."

"Angel, I think."

Claudia chuckled, "His name is Angel, and he lives in Los Angeles, _and_ he's a good guy? Sounds like a bad UPN show."

Ariel shrugged, "Hey, I don't write it, I just report it."

"Miss?" a google-eyed intern materialized beside them, "Your brother is awake."

"Oh good!" she looked to Claudia, "Stay here and keep an eye on Faith, okay?"

The girl nodded, "I got her back, don't worry."

Ariel headed up the white-walled corridor and turned right at an intersection, slipped through the doors of an opening elevator. She punched Eight and stepped to the back of the car, two tall orderlies moving out of her way. The moment she was behind them and their leering stares were off her, she raised both hands before their backs and concentrated. With a soft crackle pink energy flowed out of them and into her palms. It took careful concentration but they barely noticed anything, they just began to perspire and fidget. A minute later the lift dinged to a stop and she released them, stepped past quickly, head down. They watched her go with twin sighs.

She shook her head as she moved down the new hallway. _I need more, I have no choice. With Xander hurt and Faith out of it, it's all up to me now..._

She scanned the corridor as she went, looking for a likely candidate. Somebody alone and in his mid-twenties preferably. But the Eighth-Floor observation ward failed to produce, so she gave up for the moment and slipped into room 817.

"Hey." Xander greeted her weakly and she moved to his side, smiled.

"Hey, you. Hows the arm?"

He rotated his bandaged right shoulder and winced, "According to the doctor they got all the shrapnel out. Hows Faith?"

"A nurse told me she should wake up eventually, she's not in a coma or anything like that. The MRI they performed came up negative, so they're just doing a CAT scan right now, to be on the safe-side. She should wake up in a day or two, according to them, meaning a few hours, according to us, heh. Got to love that Slayer healing factor."

He nodded, "Yeah, it's not at Wolverine-levels, but it gets the job done." He examined her face. The last thing he remembered was a trail of flame licking across her right cheek. But it seemed perfectly fine now, "Your own powers of regeneration don't seem to be on a coffee break, 'cause you look great. I was worried, Ari."

She turned her cheek away from him modestly, licked her lips, "Yes, I'm fine. The, um, blast barely touched me. Heh, trust me, it was the twenty minutes of hiding the helicopter while you and Faith were out of it inside that did me the most damage." she shook her head, paling slightly, "Blood was everywhere. _Yours_."

He patted the transfusion bag hanging on the rack beside his bed, "I'm refueling as we speak. By the way, Hubert Farnsworth?" he held up his wrist and spun his ID bracelet.

She grinned, "Luckily there was a Male Nurse manning the Admissions desk. I'm your sister Amy, by the way."

"I've always wanted a sister. Of course, not one I was physically attracted to."

She frowned, "Only physically? I'm telling mom."

Xander chuckled, "You always were the first to run and tell, sis."

"Speaking of sisters, you really didn't know Faith had one?"

He shrugged, then winced and wished he'd expressed himself differently. "Uh, no. She never mentioned it. Sure, Faith isn't exactly what you'd call chatty about personal stuff, but yeah, it's odd. All I know is that her mother died and she's from Boston originally. Hey, I don't even know her last name." he frowned for a moment, then fixed her with a stare, "Actually, come to think of it, I don't even know _your_ last name."

She pursed her lips nervously, "Um...no...no, you don't." _Tell him! You have to tell him! It's gone way too far now, so just do it!_

Ariel took a deep breath and quelled her inner voice, then touched his hand, "Xander, there's some things you need to know."

He sat up straighter on the bed, moved over a bit and she sat down in the space he provided, stared into his eye. Without looking down he gripped her hand.

"Okay." he said softly, "Tell me."

"You... You're not going to like it."

"It doesn't matter."

She looked down at their clasped hands, "But I've done something very bad. I held back information that could have maybe prevented all of this. Well, most likely not, but still."

"Ari, just spit it out."

She looked back up at him meekly, brushed a curly strand out of her eyes and hooked it over her left ear, "Clan Oranak. The vampires, you know?"

"Yeah, I know them real well."

"Um, well, not as well as I think _I _do. Um...I think I have a personal connection with their leader."

"Cronin?" he asked in disbelief.

"No! Not that idiot. No, he's not actually in charge, somebody else is."

Xander frowned, "What are you talking about? You knew something about these freaks and you didn't warn us? Why?"

"Uh...because...because..."

"Ariel."

"Because of my mother." she said at last.

His brow furrowed, "Your mother? What does your mother have to-"

"She's the one running Oranak. But I only found out the night of the attack at Club Odessa."

His eye went wide and he fought not to shout, "And you said nothing? A full-blooded Succubus is in charge of a clan of shape-shifting vampires who want us all dead and you couldn't tell us?" his tone was hard and unimpressed, tears welled in Ariel's eyes.

"Sh-She's not a Succubus. She's human. My father was the demon."

Xander was taken aback, "What? That makes no sense."

"Incubi are transgendered. They can shift between the sexes."

He blinked, paled, "Wuh...you're a _man_ too?"

"What? No! I'm fully female." she shifted uncomfortably on the hospital linens, "When two incubi want to reproduce they first each have relations with humans, one man, one woman, killing them in the process and extracting all their life-force. Then one demon becomes male, the other female, then they bond. That's how it's usually done. But, for some unknown reason, my human mother survived the process and ended up pregnant. With me, and I was born female. It's just how it worked out."

He wasn't convinced and fought not to become manic, "But, how do you know for sure? That you aren't also male? That you won't transform into one. Like, say, um, during an, uh..." he licked his lips, "...awkward moment." A specific one materialized in his brain and his IV tube bubbled.

"Because I just _know_, that's why." she scowled at the expression on his face, "No, Xander, you _haven't _been making out with a she-male for the last two weeks. I'm all girl, trust me." her frown deepened, "Stop looking at my crotch."

"Wha-I wasn't! I swear." he gulped, forced his eye back up to hers, "I...uh, swear I wasn't."

"Uh-huh, sure. Bloody-right you weren't." she sighed, "Bollocks, I'm sure this will do wonders for our relationship."

"Um...I need time to think." then his eye widened further, "Wait, how come you're suddenly speaking with a British accent?"

"Because I'm British. We tend to do that." but the cockney brogue was gone again, "Though I can turn it off and be as American as you at will. Look, my mother was-is a raving psychotic and kept me imprisoned for six years. Then she left on a trip and never came back, and I managed to break out and came to the States. I absorbed into the culture of New York and that's all she wrote." then she scowled, "At least, until that night at Odessa..."

He rubbed his pulsing temples, "I need to lay down."

"You _are_ laying down."

"Oh right, so I am." he exhaled, then raised his head again, "Okay. All right. I think I understand why you did what you did. But there's still some things I need to know, like...like..." and his voice grew hoarse and his grip on her wrist grew rock hard, "...like if your last name is Post..."

Ariel's eyes went wide in shock, "How... How do you _know_ that?"

"Because, my dear girl," said a voice behind her, "Xander and I have met before."

Ariel went cold as arctic ice and she stood, turned about, and there, in the doorway, stood her mother.

"No...freakin..._way_..." Xander stared at the tall, austere blonde woman, with the regal face and arrogant, superior bearing exactly like he remembered it from five years earlier, "But...but you're _dead_!" he looked at her right arm, or the lack-there-of, "Holy crap, it _is _you!"

And Gwendolyn Post, former member of the Watchers Council, stepped inside and nudged the door shut behind her. She looked to her horrified daughter and frowned in distaste at her choice of clothing, "Still the trollop I see. Some things never change."

"Mother..." Ariel stared the person she feared most in all the world up-and-down, "Wh-What happened to your arm?"

Post held up her right and the coat dropped empty below the elbow, "Your chum Faith _happened_ to it. She and that slut Buffy Summers cleaved it off back in Sunnydale."

"Wha-Faith?" she looked back at Xander for a moment, then returned to stare at her parent, "I-I-I don't understand."

"And neither do you need to understand, you silly twit of a girl. All you need to know now is that I have found you and you are-"

"NO!" shouted Ariel, eyes blazing, "I am NOT going back into the cell! I will DIE first!"

Gwendolyn smirked darkly, "Before you so rudely interrupted me, I was _not _about to say you're going back into containment."

Ariel licked her dry lips, "I'm...I'm not?"

"No. You're not." and she raised her left hand, the sleeve of her tweed overcoat falling back to reveal a spiked silver band locked around her wrist.

It sparked with light and her hand erupted into a flare of strobbing blue power, "You're going to die, Ariel. Right now." and with a flick of her raw will she blasted a bolt of ball-lightning across the room and into her daughter's chest, sending her flying backwards. Propelled by the blinding discharge and bent double around the impact point, Ariel crashed through the wall to the left of the bed, rocketed through the next hospital room, then through the next wall, then the _next!_

"Leave her ALONE!" Xander was half-way out of bed and gunning for Post, but she was passing him and pressed her palm to his chest, it flashed and he howled in agony. He fell back onto the bed writhing, blue lightning crackling across his body, then was still. Gwendolyn ducked through the hole in the wall and headed after her daughter, only one intention in her mind.

Ariel's utter destruction...

**End of Part VI...**


	32. Chapter IX: Part VII

_Five floors below Ariel's hospital room..._

Thunder echoed down from high above, sending patients and staff running in all directions, but in the radiation soaked depths of the CAT scanner, Faith heard none of it.

She lay perfectly still on the sliding table, as the x-ray tube rotated on it's gantry about her head, whirring and clicking as it pried deep into her cranium, creating a computed axial tomographical image to test for any internal trauma the earlier MRI might have missed. Underneath a pair of oval eye-protectors her heavy lids shifted and twitched, as images and sounds flashed through her brain at a fantastic rate.

Seconds turned into minutes and the rain of memories flew by faster and faster and - _she was riding a tricycle through the trailer park, she was getting punched by the Beast, she was slaying her first vampire, she was losing her virginity in the back of a pick-up, she was dodging Boone's gunfire in the warehouse, she was laughing in her highchair as her father made a funny face, she was seducing Angel in his mansion, she was strapping weights to the body of the Mayor's assistant, she was getting suspended for smoking out behind her junior high, she was digging through Joyce's make-up, she was twisting the shard of glass as she dragged it down-down-DOWN Wesley's cheek as he gritted his teeth and tried not to scream and the sweat poured down her back and she laughed as she straddled him and pushed harder and_ - she screamed at the top of her lungs and her head slammed up out of cradle and into the rotating gantry, smashing in a panel of protective plastic and fracturing the x-ray tube inside it. With a ratchet of gears the scanner halted and the green light faded.

"What was that?" snapped a harsh female voice that Faith's addled mind fought to tag with a name. She struggled against the light restraints and they began to snap loose despite how weak she was.

"She's w-waking up!" whimpered another terrified woman and Faith noticed a sharp pain in her left leg, like something was digging into it, dragging at it.

"That's enough then, give me it."

"I-"

"Give it to me!" and there was a clatter, the other woman yelped, and the pain suddenly withdrew. Then the harsh voice growled "_Surculus_!" and there was a loud crackle of power, then a twisted scream, followed at last by the sound of quickly retreating footsteps.

Faith struggled and shouted, began pushing against the table, trying to force her way out, but it was hard, she felt so weak and woozy. Then at last she had an arm free, she hooked it on the side of the tank and levered herself out, rolled off the table and for a long moment she was in freefall.

...c_ome-again-another-day_...

Then _Wham!_ she smacked face-down on the cold cement floor, heaved out in throbbing pain, then pushed herself over onto her side. And found herself face-to-face with a very dead nurse. The young woman's smoking face stared back at her, it was half gone and pitted as if burned from the inside-out. A slow trail of oozing brackish blood flowed down from the sizzling crater torn in her forehead and left cheek, and pattered softly on the floor.

"Jeez!" Faith scrambled backwards, climbed to her feet, wobbled dangerously, spun with arms pinwheeling, then caught onto a metal rack of some kind. She steadied herself and dragged fast breaths of oxygen down into her lungs, then forced her eyes to focus. _I...I'm in a hospital? The helicopter...a gun, I fired a gun, and the missile_-"Hello?" she called out, she felt horribly sick and wanted to throw-up, despite the fact her stomach was beyond empty.

"Is anybody...there...?" she trailed off, realizing that she was the sole person alone in the room, with a dead woman lying less then a meter behind her.

_Gee, I wonder who the cops'll blame? That sounds about right for me, I finally get out from under the previous warrant for my arrest and now there'll be a brand new one..._

Then she frowned, "Uh, get a grip girl, she wasn't staked or stabbed, she was zapped by magic or sumthin. Not that it lets me off the hook though. Well, maybe..."

She swallowed, _Okay, no choice, I have to get rid of the body, then wipe down the inside of that brain-draining washing machine to eliminate my prints, then this thing I'm holding-what the hell is this thing, anyway?_

She pushed it back and beheld a wheeled intravenous drip rack, minus the solution bag. She had spent more then enough time in hospitals to know something was off, "Okay, this shouldn't be anywhere near a machine like this, so-" a shuddering crash boomed down from above and she looked up as a chunk of ceiling tile cracked loose and spun down past her to shatter on the floor.

"Something tells me that ain't thunder." and with one last sad glance at the downed nurse, she pushed the rack away and bolted for the door...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

As Faith was piling into her elevator, Claudia was running free of hers. The last thing she ever wanted to do was leave Faith alone, but she'd heard one of the nurses racing by the CAT Chamber say World War III had broken out up on the Eighth Floor, and that was where Xander Harris was, and where Ariel had gone only ten minutes earlier. So Claudia had no choice, people needed help and she was a Slayer.

_I'm a Slayer..._

She whipped around a turn as the floor and ceiling rattled all around her and fat blue sparks rained down from the flickering fluorescent ceiling panels. She ground to a halt at a four-way junction, looked back-and-forth and listened for any sign of fighting other then the shaking. But the ward appeared to be deserted, just two intersecting corridors of white and orange walls and yellow doors, most hanging agape.

"Three directions to pick from, only two are right. Come on, guys, give me a sign."

"How about, 'Danger Ahead'." said a deep male voice behind her and she spun in a half-circle.

The dark-suited vampire from factory, the one with the goatee, stood over her, grinning. Claudia gaped, "But...how did you get behind me?"

"Magic, girl, magic."

Her hand dove to the pocket of her day-glo orange jeans, came up with the stake Faith had given her. She held it up, forced the fiercest expression she could muster, "This time the odds are on _my_ side, pal." she snarled and was amazed to discover the boldness wasn't fake, it was real. She'd seen what Faith could do, and that power was hers as well. This guy was going dow-_WHAM!_ a fire extinguisher came down like a hammer on the back of her head. She crumpled like a deck chair.

Cronin grinned across at his fellow Clan member, "Nicely done, Ativus. The young ones are so easy."

They caught up her arms and legs and headed for the elevator. They were seven meters from it when it rolled open and Faith stepped free, clad embarrassingly in a thigh-length linen gown. Cronin did a double-take and so did she.

Then both their stares narrowed and duplicate hatred welled up inside them.

"You _really_ wanna put the chick down." Faith took a meaningful step forward.

Cronin released Claudia's ankles and nodded to his subordinate, then stepped into Faith's path as Ativus began dragging the young blonde away in the opposite direction. He looked her up-and-down, mouth quirking into a pitying sneer, "I see your fashion sense has improved."

"You did _not_ just rag on my style. Now I'm gonna do more then just kill ya, I'm gonna _hurt_ you badly doin it." and without taking her eyes off him she threw out her right hand and smashed it through a pane of emergency glass on the wall, yanked it back now gripping a fire axe, "I'm gonna start low and chop upwards, yo, and it's gonna be Bush Gardens-level fun." and she swung the weapon back one handed.

He flung his arms wide, barred his chest, "Give it your best, Slayer! You'll miss, I guarantee!" so she did throw, inverting the aim as she threw. The axe buzzed down the corridor, he misted, it flashed through him in a spray of vapor, he re-solidified and laughed out loud, "See! You missed!"

There was a meaty _whack!_ behind him.

"No I didn't." grinned Faith's blue lips.

Cronin blinked and turned about, stared down the length of the corridor to see Ativus pinned to the wall with the axe buried through the left side of his neck. The stunned girl lay at his feet and the vampire was squealing in fits, waving his arms in agony. Then he went limp and exploded into dust. The axe landed with a clang beside Claudia's prone body.

Faith was already moving as Cronin swung back round, vamping out as he whirled. She sprang, landed on him and grabbed hold of the shoulders of his jacket, wrenched them downwards in a rip of thousand-dollar fabric. He stumbled backwards, slammed her off of him, she flipped through the air, landed deftly on the counter of a nurse's station, and raised her head to him, then grinned ferally at his right shoulder, "Well lookee what I see. A brand new Glyph to replace the last one I buffed off your sunken chest."

Cronin looked down at it, then back to her, shrugged, "So what if you know where it is, that information is meaningless if you can't make contact with me." and he faded to mist again, flowed across the floor at her in a rush. He swung out a ghostly arm and it reformed without the rest of him following suit, caught her across the chin, sending her flying off the counter and into the wall across the hallway, "I've been practicing with it, see!"

She slapped off the painted cement, spun and landed at the ready, charged him, hands clawing for the available arm, but it faded again and she drove through him, stumbled and crashed into the opposite wall. Cronin materialized in mid spin, caught her by the arm and whipped her about, threw her head-first into the station, she crashed through it in a spray of wood and plastic.

"You're going to die here, Faith! I'm going to kill you, then take your latest volunteer back to the Initiative where they will drain her dryer then your hair-style!" and he kicked her in the face before she could get up...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Ariel ran, she couldn't help it, her fear drove her and swallowed all collective thought. And behind her the world thundered with rage at the utter blasphemy of her very existence. Judgment Day had come, and she was paying for the forgive-less crime of ever having been born.

"Come back here!" shouted the engine of vengeance, as Ariel pounded down the slick hallway, and all about her erupted into a cascade of righteous blue fire. The blonde demoness weaved desperately and the flaming debris somehow missed her, she rounded the turn and-screeched to a stop.

Ten meters ahead was a dead-end!

_No..._

The walls were solid cement, there wasn't even a door. Just markings on the walls to indicate that construction had been called off at this point in the wing until further funding could be raised. Ariel dashed forward and reached the end, pressed her palms to the cement, searched desperately for a seam, looked up but the ceiling was just as solid.

"No!"

"Yes!" snapped the voice of her mother and she turned around.

Gwendolyn Post stood at the turn, staring down the length at her, her eyes wild and filled with malevolent wrath. Her wavy blonde hair whirled about her shoulders, charged by the power scalding out from the wide runic band crackling around her wrist. She raised it and pursed her lips into a superior sneer, "End of the line, dear girl. Your reign of sinful crime ends here."

"N-No! I never! Never-ever!" she shook her head, eyes wet, "Mother, I never killed anybody-"

"Lies! I can see it in your eyes! How many did you do away with, girl? Fifty? A hundred? How many have you whored yourself to and drained of their life-energy until there was nothing but a corpse remaining, hmmm? How many fell to your demonic lusts?"

Ariel moved to run at her, to try and dodge past her, but Gwendolyn threw up her hand and beam lightning crackled forth, caught Ariel in the side, she howled and was tossed backwards in a shower of sparks, slammed back into the dead-end's cement wall.

Her mother stalked forward, arm still held before her and spitting rays of twisted azurine one-after-another down the length of the corridor. Ariel wheeled and dodged, caught one on the leg, went down on a knee with a yell.

"While I was flung from this realm and into Purgatory, somewhere you rightfully deserved to be in my place, who many did you murder to feed your wanton lusts! HOW MANY!"

"NONE!" roared a voice behind her and Post wheeled about in surprise. And Xander Harris swung back a fist and decked her.

She staggered backwards, landed on her knees.

"You _leave her alone_!" and he charged her as she struggled to raise her arm, he caught it before she could get it ready, caught the other shoulder and hauled her up, "Ariel never killed _anybody_!" he growled into Post's face and slammed her back into the cement wall.

"Stay out of this, boy! This is a righteous thing I do!" snarled the former Watcher and her wrist dazzled to life again, coruscated with blue energy, "You meddle in things beyond the purvue of your limited mind!" and she fought against him, pushing her hand down towards his face.

He winced back as the band spat and crackled, wreaths of lightning spinning around it, reaching for him, "You're one to throw around the word 'righteous', lady! You're psychotic, this I'm sure of!" he glared with his good right eye, "Hello, Sunnydale? Glove of _Myhnegon_? Delude yourself, much? I was _there_, remember?" and he pushed the fist back with everything his drug-weakened muscles would give him, but Post was amazingly strong for such a thin woman and she gritted her teeth and fought against him.

Gwendonlyn's lips curled into a disgusted sneer as they fought, "You were a child then and still have the mental capacity of one now! You couldn't possibly understand what happened back then!" and she drove a knee up into his crotch, Xander gasped and hobbled back, fell against the wall. Post, free of his grip now, raised her hand and lashed it out for him, "Another victim of my daughter's perversion. Better off dead!" and she fired and-Ariel stepped into the path of the bolt, palms raised before her, crackling with pink fire.

The thunderbolt slammed into them and she bore the brunt of it, snarled and thrust her hands back at her mother, sending a blast of the carnic power back along the crackling beam. It slapped into the older woman and drove her back into the wall gasping, her wrist went dark. Ariel lanced a hand forward and caught her by the neck, yanked her off her feet, threw back her other fist to the ready, it crackled with barely-contained animal force.

"Never...touch...my..._boyfriend_!"

And she whirled about to face back down the other hallway then punched her in a flash of blazing incarnadine power. Her mother hurtled away in a stream of scalding omnipotence, screaming all the way, blazed down the corridor and crashed through the window at the far end. She vanished into the night in a shower of glass.

Xander dragged himself to his feet and stared in wonder at her. Ariel stood before him, clothing charred and smoking, her eyes pulsing with rose veins of energy, and her fists smoldering with wisps of steam. He snapped his fingers before her face and she blinked, pulled her glare away from the distant busted window. The power faded from her and she exhaled long and hard, "Wuhhh...that felt _really_ good." she frowned sadly, "Is... Is that wrong?" he shrugged and she sighed, "D-Did she hurt you?"

He shook his head, "Nothing permanent." and then Ariel broke out into tears and he pulled her against him to sob on his shoulder. Xander glared down the corridor at the gaping window, "Wow, meeting your girlfriend's mom for the first time can be a _real_ ordeal..."

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

You cannot see the wind.

You can feel the gale upon your skin, but you cannot see it. Some-one wise once said that while you cannot fight the wind, you still are never defeated by it. At the best of times Faith would agree with this philosophy, even though she thought Zen was a brand of noodle sauce. But this was not the best of times.

It was the worst of times.

_WHUMPH!_ a fist slammed across her jaw, sending her head snapping to the left with a crunch of neck vertebrae which played through her head in an agonizing _rat-a-tat-tat!_

When you are winning the experience flashes by in a blur of triumph you can barely remember later on.

She tried to block but his head sailed through her raised arms, solidified, and drove into her forehead. _Crack!_

"Guhhhh!" she grunted and pitched back like a drunken brawler.

But when you are losing, truly losing, every moment lasts an eternity and is branded into your memory engrams forever.

Cronin rammed a fist in and punched Faith square in the face. Her arms flew back and she bowled backwards, folding up as she flew, blood spraying from her nostrils, thick with mucous and saliva. Her head was wavering back-and-forth as if in slow motion, and through fogging eyes she witnessed Cronin rematerialize, laughing and grinning, he reached out and snagged her hair and kept her from going down.

"I think you actually did me a favor, Slayer!" and he pulled her back up fast, let go of her as she kept flying upwards, then caught her neck and continued the thrust, driving her skull-first into the ceiling. She crashed through it up to her chin, then he yanked her backwards, cutting a trench through the hard plaster, as Faith's limbs flailed like an epileptic. Her forehead met a lode-bearing beam with a brain-crushing slap, and he halted her there for a moment.

"If you hadn't of destroyed my first Glyph back at the night club, then I never would have received this all new one." he pulled her down out of the ceiling, grinned into her battered and bloody face as she listed, blinking hard just to stay conscious.

"Forget the Discipline of Stone, Mist is the _true_ power of the Old Ones!" and he raised her high above his head then bifted her two-handed.

She spun limply across the hallway nexus and buzzed over the Nurses Station counter again, smashing down into the already half-destroyed nest of computers and desks. For an eternity of moments plastic and metal flew, wood chips spun, and pens and clipboards orbited high overhead. Then it all came down on her like a thousand fists all at once.

_I'm...gonna...die..._

"You're going to die!" Cronin smoothed down his Italian suit, then reached down with an economy of movement and picked up a long shard of wood that had spun out of the totaled Station area. He straightened up and twirled it like a baton, strode forward, lips twitching in anticipation.

"I'm not going to drain you though, Slayer, no, that would be too kind. No, I'm going to do to you what you have done to so many of my kind." and he went mist long enough to pass through the counter, then became whole again on the other side.

Faith was climbing out of the wreckage, her back to him, her hair a tangle of debris, blood streaming down her bare legs. He reached for her, she skittered forward to the wall, clawed up it to stand, her back still away from him.

He darted forward and caught her shoulder in a hard grip, "I'm going to stake you, Slayer, I'm going to drill this piece of wood between your breasts and feel your ribs give way and then listen to your heart pulp as the wood drives into your _spine_."

And with one last look at the wall before her face, Faith wrenched out of his grip and pivoted around to face him, raised the wood shard _she'd_ found. They both stabbed at once for each other, him grinning like a maniac, she gritting blood-stained teeth, and both weapons sunk deep into each other.

She had managed to lean to the right and Cronin's stake impaled her through the left shoulder.

He had gone mist and her arm had slashed through him.

He laughed.

She gasped in pain.

"Much too slow, Slayer." he cackled.

"Much too stupid, vamp." she snarled as her other hand caught hold of a handle mounted on the wall and yanked it downwards, then grabbed onto the plastic pipe it was hooked to. It tore loose and she levered it up.

Cronin's ghostly eyes went wide, focused on the pneumatic conveyor that the hospital used to shuttle messages and lab results all over the huge medical center.

"I guess it _SUCKS_ to be you!" Faith shouted and with a roar of high-powered vacuum the vaporized ghoul was sucked forward and through her at the tremendous speed of one hundred kPa's. He vanished with a strangled scream into the hose. She crumpled the end shut with a screech of insulated plastic.

Then she wobbled off down the corridor, pulling the shaft of pine from her shoulder as she went. She chucked it over her shoulder and smiled to herself through blue lips, "I ain't afraida no ghosts..." then her eyes rolled up and she crumpled to the floor, three meters from where Claudia lay still knocked out.

Their friends found them like that four minutes later. And after less then ten seconds of debate decided staying in then hospital just wasn't worth it, they needed to get back to the sanctuary of the Relief Station now, before their enemies could regroup, they were just way too exposed. While Ariel snagged a discarded first-aid kit from the floor and moved to the younger Slayer, Xander hitched Faith up and over his good shoulder in a fireman's carry, then they took off as fast as their legs could carry them.

"At least the Initiative is still short a Slayer." were the last words Xander uttered as they exited Beth Israel through an emergency exit...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

"But I'm still short a Slayer!" Ethan Rayne shouted into the phone, veins pulsating in his forehead. He ripped the cloak from his shoulders and stomped across the conference room, halted before the flatscreen display of four of the Complex's detention cells. Three were occupied, and the fourth gaped open, ready to receive. But not tonight it seemed.

"You silly cow, after everything I've done for you! _This_ is how you repay me?"

"_You don't understand_-" Gwendolyn Post's weakened voice piped from the receiver.

He cut her off savagely, "You promised me a Slayer, you said it would be _easy_, you said your...your vampires had it all under control!"

"_But_-"

"But NOTHING! That's _it_, our alliance is finished! I will find what I need on my own, and when _HE _comes you will be enslaved with the rest of this pathetic world!"

"_ETHAN! NO!_" Gwendolyn begged from the receiver,"_I-I need y-your help! I'm in an alley, I-I-I fell. I think m-my legs are broken and I'm bl-bleeding to death. Please_-" but he slammed the handset down, ending the call, then ripped the cord out of the wall and threw the phone across the room to shatter against the door.

He turned away, fuming and fighting the urge to send his troops on a campaign to burn the Oranak Chantry to the ground. He was gripping the top of his seat with white-knuckled wrath when the door to the darkened chamber swung open in a rattle of phone remains.

He grabbed desperately for his cloak and had it halfway to his shoulders before he saw who it was. He exhaled in relief, "Lieutenant Bannon, don't you knock? This is _my_ Complex, as you would do well to recall."

She eyed the heavy wool garment as he finished pulling it back on, and her eyes narrowed. Then she filed her thoughts away for another time and shut the door behind her, strode across the room to stop beside him as he hunkered down into the thick leather chair. She frowned at the sullen expression throbbing across his face, then touched his shoulder, "I take it Oranak's mission failed."

He rotated away from her and his face hardened like steel, "You would be correct in your assessment, Alyona."

"It is of no consequence-" she started to say, then winced silent as he spun back to face her.

His face was horrible, "No _consequence_? Have you any idea what will _happen_ when my Infusion of power runs dry?"

"No." she replied evenly, "And I won't have to find out."

She drew a wide black case from the pocket of her labcoat and set it before him, flipped back it's lid.

Ethan stared down at the IV bag which glistened there, fat with dark-ruby liquid sloshing slowly back-and-forth. He licked his lips, "How-but it is less then two liters. We need at least-"

"It's from Slayer-Zero."

His jaw twitched and with shaking fingers he reached down and touched the reservoir of stolen plasma.

"...Faith's?"

She nodded, "I drew it myself. I had no time to kill her, and really didn't see a reason to, now that we have all the blood we need."

"...Faith's blood..."

"Yes."

He caught it up and stood, a wide smile splitting his face and sweeping the stench of failure away with a tide of jubilant success, "At last! _At last! _ I've done it! I've done it!"

"You mean _we've _done it." corrected Alyona dangerously.

He nodded fervently, then headed for the door, "Of course! _HE _will be pleased, pleased with both of us! This world is ours! Ours..." he paused and looked back at her, "Lets go bleed us some Slayers, my dear, shall we?"

Bannon grinned, "Lets!" then she linked arms with him and they vanished out the door...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Across town..._

"Is it locked?" asked Ariel in a low voice as Xander crossed the dusty floor of the forgotten subway platform.

"Yeah. I didn't need Faith's code to seal us in-" she pressed a finger to her lips and he lowered his voice, "-the portal did it automatically. And I think that barrier spell Willow gave me worked." he finished in a whisper.

"It did?"

"Well, there was this flash and the walls seemed to go all glowy for a second. Not bad for a cantrip text-messaged from Madagascar. Didn't you see it?"

She shook her head, "I was checking Faith's bandages. Her shoulder is healing fast, but she still looks like Uma Thurman at the end of Pulp Fiction."

Xander looked to the left where they had strung up sheets acquired from an all-night linen supply store on the way back. Purchased not with money though, but with Ariel's influence. Sure, it was stealing, but what else could they do? It wasn't like they actually had any cash. Faith and Claudia were behind the make-shift divider, asleep on air mattresses, also 'bought' from a nearby gas station. The clothing and possession's Ariel had hidden in the helicopter while they were at the hospital were piled haphazardly to the right.

"You ready?" Ariel asked Xander as he dug absently at his shoulder through his bloodied flannel shirt.

"Then let's do this." and he nodded, followed her across the Station and crossed into the Men's washroom. As he sealed and locked the door behind them, Ariel walked down the length of the stalls to the end where the Initiative pilot sat, tied tightly to a steel chair they'd found in a dumpster.

"Time to wake up, marine." she snapped, and slapped him hard across the cheek.

His head lulled and he moaned. So she tore the heavy goggles from his eyes and ripped the helmet from his head, dunked it in a toilet, then splashed the gritty water across his face. He gurgled and coughed, his eyes snapped open in shock.

"That's more like it." and Ariel caught him by his crewcut and wrenched his head back, raised a hand over his face, igniting it with throbbing neon-pink power, "Now, are you going to answer my questions or am I going to have to melt the eyes from your sockets?"

"I-I-where am I? R-Release me!" he sputtered.

"Wrong answer." and Ariel lowered her hand to his cheek.

But Xander caught her wrist and the power vanished. She blinked up at him in confusion, "What? Was I doing it wrong? I only had NYPD Blue episodes to go by."

"No..." he replied, as he stared down at the soldier, "...you were perfect. But things have changed."

"They have? How?"

"Don't you recognize him?" she shook her head, and he frowned.

"No surprise, considering the manic state you were in on Brooklyn Bridge that day."

Then it dawned on her, "Peyton! That Lieutenant! He's the one Rayne picked to be the focus of his ritual." she caught hold of the soldier's hair again and leered in, "Oh, we're gonna have _lots_ of fun now, aint we! Because now we _know_ you can tell us whats really going on."

"Actually, it's even better then that." and Xander folded arms across his chest and stared defiantly down at the captured pilot, "Because now we have something to trade for Hope..."

**End of Chapter IX...**


	33. Chapter X: Part I

**SLAYERS: THREE OF A KIND**

**Chapter X - Winner Takes All**

_Sunnydale, November 1998..._

Xander Harris, his best friend Willow Rosenberg at his side, burst into the mansion's common area, breathing hard, and his eyes locked upon the haggard form of Gwendolyn Post, leaning against the wall. Nearby, the intense sound of hand-to-hand combat echoed across the ornate stone-walled chamber. Post looked to him pleadingly, "The glove! It's in the trunk."

"We'll get it." the Sunnydale High student replied reassuringly.

"Help Faith." she added and Xander looked round toward the atrium, eyes widening at the awesome sight of the two Slayers fighting each other. _What? Is this my doing? Crap, I can't let them do this! _He rushed off to intercede, leaving Willow behind to help the still shaken Watcher to her feet.

Recovered now, Gwendolyn Post wasted no time making her way to the trunk the vampire Angel had locked her prize away in. She threw open the lid and unfolded the rags wrapped about the heavy glove. _Yes...Yes!_

Reverently she raised the spiked gauntlet and cradled it in her hands as if it was her first born, "Finally." she breathed and grinned wickedly. _It's mine! All it's power, mine to command and with it I will rid this world of the embarrassment of my own loins. I shall be appeased and made pure once again. At last!_

Behind her, Willow's expression emanated confusion as she witnessed the Watcher's odd behavior. But before she could even begin to react, Post swung the heavy gauntlet around in a wide arc, hitting the young woman across the face. Without a sound she collapsed to the marble floor, unmoving.

As Buffy and Faith continued with their brutal fight, Gwendolyn slid her right arm into the glove and made a fist as she felt the tight metal joints press to her skin. Instantly, the metal claws surrounding the enchanted gauntlet's opening began snapping down, puncturing her arm one-after-another until all ten were permanently embedded in the pale flesh just below her elbow. But the Englishwoman felt no pain, quite the opposite: a deep sense of barely-restrained power began to build within her diaphragm and it spread in all directions throughout her tall, willowy body and converged in the fingers and palm of her right hand. Her lips twisting manically, she raised the encased limb to the huge skylight above her.

"_Taou huogan maqachte milegaing_!" she commanded in Gaelic, and the power of the glove was invoked!

Up in the sky furious lightning struck and energized thunder boomed, causing Faith and Buffy to halt their combat, hands gripped tight upon each other. As one they looked around and inside the mansion, while within Gwendolyn waited excitedly for the power to become hers. Lightning flashed a second time above the skylight, but the two Slayers were still unwilling to take a chance on releasing each other, as understanding of the bizarre sight still avoided their countenance.

But then, at the same moment, the two girl's eyes locked upon the older woman's face and they recognized the expression of pure power-lust, and as one they released their hold upon each other. The fight was no longer between them, perhaps it never had been?

Faith's gaze narrowed and she called out to her newly-imposed guardian, "What's going on?"

And the woman who had passed herself off as a Watcher lowered her gauntlet and looked over at the brunette Slayer, the expression on her face malicious, "Faith! A word of advice: you're an idiot."

The two Slayers gaped at her in disbelief and Faith felt the warm sense of trust that had been building within her ever since the British woman had entered her life evaporate, leaving behind only hatred and fear. Post extended her arm to the sky once more, "_Tauo freim_!"

On the floor, Willow woke up and turned about just in time to see a blindingly bright bolt of lightning smash down through the skylight and strike the glove dead on. Shards of glittering glass fell everywhere, but Post ignored them, rejoicing in her new-found strength. With wicked pleasure she turned back to face the Slayers and held out her arm.

"_Tauo freim_!"

A bolt of curling lightning lept from the gauntlet for them, they dodged out of the way and it missed them by inches, striking a tree behind them instead. As it burst into flames the Slayers gawked at it in amazement, then looked back to their new nemesis.

Willow climbed to her feet and began backing away fast, her body stiff with fear, her wide eyes centered on the false Watcher as she spun back toward her and took aim.

Willow's eyes saucered, _Oh damn-_

"_Tauo freim_!"

Another bolt zagged down through the skylight and struck the gauntlet. Instantly it was channeled in a new direction: right for the teenage redhead. But Angel was on his feet now and he tackled her to the floor! The blazing beam scorched his fireplace instead. Post scowled in rage.

Outside, the tactics ingrained deep within the blonde warrior's mind delivered a plan of action, Buffy looked to her counterpart, "Can you draw her fire?

Faith nodded hard, "You bet I can."

"Go do it."

The raven-haired Slayer got to her feet and charged forward into the old manor. Pace saw her coming though, and as the teenager ducked into the hallway she tracked her along the wall and guesstimated her re-entry point and took aim for there, "_Tauo freim_!"

As Faith throttled out of the exit a new bolt flashed for her, but she leapt behind a couch and the shot missed. Pace didn't care, _the young twit is only avoiding the inevitable, none can stand before me now!_ She raised the gauntlet before her, her eyes aglow with lustful desire, "There's nothing you can do to me now!"

Back out in the atrium, Buffy dug amongst the broken glass she and Faith had reduced the french doors to when they had flew through them only minutes earlier, and came up with a large shard. _This should do._ She climbed to her feet and ran into the mansion.

"I have the glove." Post declared with rancor, "With the glove comes the power."

"I'm getting that." Buffy replied behind her and Gwendolyn looked over at her in surprise, as the Chosen One threw the jagged circle of glass at her hard. It buzzsawed through the air and sliced cleanly through Post's upper arm, severing it neatly from her body, taking the Glove of _Myhnegon_ with it.

And also control of the power.

Nothing reigned it in now; the mystical energy blazed and frazzled, sparks and twisting bolts escaping from it madly. Another surge of lightning flashed down from the sky and sunk into Post's chest. She screamed to the high heavens and her body convulsed, as bolt-after-bolt blasted down into her. Everybody present stared enraptured, Xander and Faith included, as the raw quintessence was unleashed upon the woman's wicked being, then with one last blinding flare Gwendolyn was gone, and...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

and...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

...and with a crackle of primordial power Gwendolyn Post materialized high above a vast floor of obsidian stone. She fell twisting and thumped down hard on her left side, rolled limply, trailing a thick splatter of blood from her stumped right arm.

She came to a stop, her side pressing against a pair of huge sandaled feet. She cried out, both in agony and terror, as she looked up into a large face which now leered down at her, it's eyes pulsating with reddish-gold power. Strong hands caught her shoulders and wrenched her to her feet, one slid down and gripped the spurting stump where her upper arm used to be and squeezed it. Gwendolyn screamed, gold lightning flashed between the fingers and it was cauterized shut.

Her mouth opened and closed in silent shock as she hung raggedly in the hulking man's grip. Wisps of smoke twisted up and plucked at her nostrils with the bacon-grease stench of her own cooked flesh and he leered in close, the coarse hairs of a beard scratching across her cheeks, "YOU ARE MINE NOW, CHILD." his reverberating voice declared in an odd double tone and she cringed.

"Who-Who are y-you?" she breathed, a child in the grips of a giant.

And he held her up, feet dangling high above the ebony deck, "IT WAS MY NAME YOU INVOKED, WOMAN! IT WAS _MY_ POWER YOU DEMANDED! NOW... NOW YOU WILL PAY THE PRICE!"

And his raucous laughter filled her world...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_The city of New York, yesterday..._

They found her lying on the pavement behind the hospital, her body contorted in a rapture of pain, shards of glass wreathed about her broken and bleeding torso, while eight stories above the night wind whistled through the ruined window she'd been blasted out of.

By all rights Gwendolyn should have been dead, but the thirst for retribution flowed within her ravaged body and had kept her heart pounding, her lungs inflating. But even a lust for vengeance is no replacement for life-blood and hers had been slowly seeping from her as the night had progressed. The minions of Clan Oranak knew this, for they were vampires. They had already lost one leader to an evening gone very wrong and were unwilling to lose the other. As well, it had been a secret mandate of Cronin's to turn Post if her guard was ever lowered and this was a perfect opportunity. So they took her.

They bore her away.

And in their embrace they made her whole again, and then laid her down in deepest, darkest barrow below their hidden Chantry and waited for her to be reborn.

The human that had been Gwendolyn Post faded from existence as her tormented soul was released to the ether. And as morning exploded into being high above on the surface of New York, the essence of a demon rose from the depths and took hold of her mortal coil.

And she awoke screaming, sitting up and clasping her lone arm to a heaving chest that no longer required air. Her eyes flew open and all around her the assembled minions of Oranak ballyhoo'd her into being. Gasping, she rolled off the slab of black obsidian that was their birthing stone and her minions gathered her up, gripped her close.

"You are truly one of us now, Mistress." the closest one exalted into her pounding eardrums.

Gwendolyn convulsed in his grasp, her eyes madly flicking back-and-forth as the realization took hold. Then she pushed their hands from her and stepped to the eye of the mob, turned back and vamped. As her forehead twisted into demon form and her eyes yellowed, she raised her stumped right arm and grinned maliciously, "Yes...one of you..." she rasped, and the image of her daughter filled her mind, then it was eclipsed by the face of Faith. She looked to her servants, their eager faces awaiting her commands. So she gave one.

"Ready the Hall, stoke the braziers."

"The Brands?" begged one of the groveling vampires.

"Yes off course the Brands, you fool." and she strode forward, tattered skirts swishing about her and the mob parted before her in twin waves of shinning xanthic eyes, "Heat them to their highest temperature, for the one I will use is the largest by far and will need to get white-hot."

Gasps reverberated about the barrow as they grasped her intent. As she exited the chamber a smile curved her thin lips. _Daughter, your time of flight has ended. Now it is time for_ me _to soar..._

**End of Part I...**


	34. Chapter X: Part II

_Today..._

As the faulty fluorescent light flickered and buzzed above him in the dingy public washroom, Lieutenant William Peyton gritted his teeth and tried again.

_Uhhh...the Master...must...return...to the...Master..._

Under his sweat-stained black fatigues, coiled muscles strained and the ropes wrapped about his limbs and torso began to strain, warping the rusty chair he was bound to.

_This time...is going to...be it... _he writhed and twisted against the ropes and the heavy seat rocked under the barrage of his strength, scratching furrows into the green tiled floor underneath, and-the door at the other end of the room swung back and a shadow loomed, Peyton froze. His eyes clamped shut,_ Please don't be her, please don't be her, let it be him, let it be the blonde one with the glowing eyes, just don't let it be-_

"All awake again I see, lover." and Faith dug her nails into his bruised chin, popping fresh scabs free from similar spots where'd she gripped over-and-over before. Thin runnels of blood seeped forth and spattered down amongst older stains on the knees of Peyton's uniform. She leaned in close and grinned savagely into his straining face.

"What, you don't even want to look at me this morning? And I made breakfast in bed for you and _everything_." her brown lips pouted, "Humph, I don't think this relationship is goin the way it should. You just don't treat me right, baby."

"...screw...you..." he spat past her near-bone crushing grip on his jaw.

The dark-haired Slayer's grin deepened and she slid onto his lap, straddling him invitingly, "Uh-uh, not until you start bein nice to me. Until then I'm holdin out. No more luvin for you, boy, until you treat me like a lady."

"...nothing...I'll tell you...nothing..."

She reached over to the nearest sink and dug a shard of broken mirror free from it's squalid tureen, twirled it dexterously across her knuckles as she brought it back and halted it against the soldier's left nostril.

"Nothing?" she prompted primly.

He exhaled carefully and opened his eyes once more, looked down at the glinting sliver. He swallowed then steeled himself.

"I will not betray my Master." he whispered, as she deftly severed a protruding nose hair.

"Then once again, boyo, we are at an impasse. 'Cause I'm done takin no for answer. See, your boys got my sister locked up in that tuna can y'all call a base and I..." she jabbed his cheek, drawing more blood, "...want..." _jab!_ "...her..." _snick!_ "...back." then she ground the sliver in, pushing past muscle as Peyton bucked and cursed, and pressing deep until she reached bone.

Then she pushed some more.

Faith caught his shock of hair as Peyton convulsed and howled, and tried to keep her own inner disgust at bay. She hated this, she had sworn to put this side of her behind her lest it consume her once more and the old thirst for mortal blood return and take hold once again. But this guy's pals had her little sister and whatever mystical thrall this Ethan Rayne psycho had put the Initiative agent under prevented Ariel's seduction abilities from working their wiles upon him.

_So it's the old-school me, _Faith scowled, _or we give up..._

And she wasn't ready to pack it in for Hope just yet. Not in the _least_.

She bent the soldier's head back and squeezed his torso between her thighs in the most un-erotic fashion ever, bringing both his spine and ribs to the point of near breakage. Peyton gagged in excruciating anguish and his eyelids shuddered, his lips peeled back as the waves of torment cascaded through him.

"Come-on, Willy!" raged Faith as she drove into him, her Boston shrill a terror, "Give me _what I want!_ Where is she! Where are they! Where is that freakin base of yours! TELL ME! I'm gonna ride ya to I kill ya, don't you get? I'm GONNA! I'm-"

"Faith." interrupted a firm male voice and she stopped abruptly.

Xander stood behind her and he glared down with his good eye, his round features painted with his disapproval, "Let him go. Get off of him."

"No." she spat, "No more games, no more waiting. I'm gonna twist this walnut until his shell cracks then dig through his innards for the answers I need-"

"The answers _we_ need, remember. This is more then just a Slayer recovery operation, don't forget."

"Yeah, it's my sister's recovery operation, Harris." her brown eyes darkened dangerously, "Don't _you_ forget. Your boy Rayne can blow up half the world for all I care. What matters to me is Hope, nuthin else, make no mistake."

Xander folded arms across his chest and glared, "You're letting your personal feelings cloud you from what matters most. Sure, I don't want any harm to come to Hope anymore then you do, but stopping whatever Rayne and the Initiative are up to is paramount, you know that."

"I don't give a _crap_ what Mr. Wizard does!" she snarled and climbed off of Peyton, threw up a hand and palmed Xander back hard. He staggered and banged into a stall, eye wide in shock. Faith's face was livid and she caught him by the scruff of his flannel shirt, hefted him into the air like he was nothing.

"I'm in charge around here, understand? And if I have to carve this dork's skin from his bones to get to Hope then that's _just_ what I'm going to do!"

"Faith!" shouted Ariel from the doorway, and her normally hazel eyes flashed with incarnadine power.

"What!" shot back the furious Slayer, her narrow gaze still riveted on Xander as she held him above her.

"Put him down." ordered the blonde.

"Make me, demon-slut." she replied and Ariel's eyes widened.

Then they narrowed.

And her hands formed fists and pink power flared into being around them. She raised them like a ready boxer and smiled overtop their pulsating knuckles, "Okay, I will. I've had just about enough of your bitching and moaning. Come on then."

Faith scowled, then she lowered Xander back to the floor, releasing him with a shove. She turned toward the waiting Succubus and flashed her a feral grin, "Yeah, 'kay, this has been long in comin. I've been wanting to sort your slutty hash for months now. Let's go outside and finish this once and fer all." and she tossed the mirror shard behind her and strode forward, out of the bathroom.

Ariel returned her challenging grin, "Bring it! There's _nothing_ I'd like better."

Xander watched her go, his face pale, and then the two women were gone. He stared at the still swinging exit door, then took off after them, "Dammit! They can't go outside, it's the middle of the day, they're going to give away our position!" and he vanished out of the Men's room at a desperate run.

Lt. Peyton raised his bleeding head and blinked to steady himself, then craned his neck around and peered back over his shoulder. The mirror shard Faith had chucked was impaled half in the wall, still vibrating from it's impact. He jumped the chair toward it, then reached out with his bound fingers and grasped it's jagged length. He gritted his teeth and cracked it free, then flipped it around and began sawing at the cords binding his wrists.

_I knew they...were going to...crack,_ his thoughts spun and tried to center past the pain of his most recent abuse, _they have...no chain of command...no melding leadership structure..._

He felt the rope start to loosen as he dragged the shard against it. _They're just a bunch of...undisciplined...children...pretending to be heroes. A breakdown of discipline...was...inevitable!_ and the cords fell from his aching arms, he grinned triumphantly, reached down to free his legs.

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_The Initiative Complex..._

The screams and crashes echoed up and down the narrow detention corridor, causing Lt. Bannon to wince at the sheer shrillness of it as she entered the twilight confines of the passage.

Three of the twelve cells were active, their electromagnetic containment grids buzzing as they reinforced the solid hydraulic doors required to contain the three sixteen year-old girls they had acquired over the last four weeks. And despite the intense sedatives they were given twice-daily, the female in the center cell appeared to be wide-awake and out of her restraints.

"She is cut from the same cloth as her sister, that much is certain." remarked the Complex's absolute leader, and Alyona's horn-rimmed eyes slipped to Ethan Rayne, where he squatted on the floor, his back and shoulder-blades pressed up against Slayer-033's door.

The Lieutenant halted beside him and peered through the narrow observation slit set into the door. And she shrank back immediately as a fist rammed forward and _cracked!_ into the reinforced glass. It spider-webbed but did not break. Alyona listened as the shouts and screams began again from inside, but the containment protocols prevented her from making out any words or sentences. Maybe that was for the best.

"How long has she been like this?"

The self-taught Magus made a hand gesture above a pattern he'd drawn on the floor and the sacred sand it was composed of answered with a shifting of the raised runes and a shimmer of red-gold light. He frowned, then tried the mystical movement again. "Her tantrum has lasted for more then hour now, though I haven't really been keeping track."

Bannon reached for the cell's controls to gas the Slayer, but Rayne stopped her with a look. She frowned, "What, are you enjoying it? Do you have a thing for young women in torment?"

He pursed his lips, "Hmmm, most likely, I'll admit. But unlike most men who lean toward the younger birds, I have reason for my aggro. _They_ have tormented _me_ more then enough over the years, and not in nice wholesome dirty ways, let me tell you."

"I'll bet, sir."

He waved his hands again over the pattern on the floor and the sand undulated and flowed back into itself, "You would win that bet, Alyona, I guarantee. The original Slayer, the one before Faith, she was a particular thorn in my side on more then one occasion. And the _abuse _she heaped upon me for no good reason-"

"No good reason?" the willowy Lieutenant asked dubiously.

Ethan scowled down at the shifting circle, "None at all. Buffy Summers interfered with plans that were none of her concern."

"I've uncovered some reports in the Initiative database, flagged under your name." Bannon said innocently.

Ethan's brow furrowed, "Those should have been erased. I ordered them wiped out."

"Halloween costumes that turned the wearer into the image they were portraying?"

He frowned, "I gave you a task to perform, Lieutenant, you asked for more responsibilities and I gave you them. But instead you waste time and risk your mortal soul by researching me?"

"Oh, I did this long before I revealed to you that I wasn't under your thrall, like all the rest of the soldiers in the Complex, sir. When you suddenly arrived here a year ago as just a civilian attache and then everybody except for myself began acting like you were the Second Coming, I staged a discreet investigation."

His magical gestures halted for a moment, "Wait, you were _never_ under my control? Not even for a moment?"

She shook her head and clutched her silver clipboard tighter, waiting for a possible angry reprisal from the Englishman.

But he made none. Instead he just chuckled darkly, "So you just played along, all this time."

"Yes, sir."

"An odd choice, but I expect your Moscow handlers ordered you to, at least until you found out what I was up to."

"Exactly," she replied, "but I agreed with their assessment and-" her eyes narrowed and a chill shot up her spine, "Wha-How...How did you know?"

Rayne began his gesturing once more, "I am a Magus, remember? And a pretty amazing one, if I say so myself, and I do. You aren't the only one who's done their research, though my methods are a bit more direct then your paltry efforts, I assure you. I had you sussed for more then a week now, the powers of divination I control are quite accurate. Now-now, Comrade Mizirov, don't go legging it or anything, I'm not going to kill you or anything as vulgar as that."

The wiccan infiltrator recovered and carnic energies darkened her eyes, she didn't believe him. _I must disable him and contact Yuri! They need to come now-_

"Forget about Yuri." he snapped, jarring her back to focus, "Forget about all of them, Alyona; the Americans, the Russians, the military, it doesn't matter anymore. Not after tonight."

"You can read my mind? But-what, tonight?" her black eyes narrowed and the Annihilation Cantrip she was mentally preparing to unleash upon him faltered, "What...what do you mean?"

And Rayne made one last furious sweep of his hands, his fingers moving supernaturally fast, blurring into each other as they flew, and the circle of blue sand shot up from the floor and flashed glowing amber, forming into a spinning ring of three-dimensional glyphs. As the spell's light blazed up-and-down the corridor, causing even Hope to halt in her furious assault on a door that would never give, Ethan stood and stepped forward into the spinning display, and with a flare of carnic power it sunk into him and was gone. His eyes sizzled for a moment and then he laughed, long and hard.

"TONIGHT!" he shouted, raising his fists and the heavy cloak he'd discarded flowed up from the steel floor and dropped over his body, the hood rising of it's own accord to cowl his narrow features under a supernatural-reinforced shield of enchanted darkness that even Russian Occult Operations Agent Alyona Mizirov's enhanced senses could not penetrate.

Angry power crackled in spinning spheres of gilded-crimson above his outstretched palms and his voice was magnified tenfold as he spoke, echoing throughout the Complex for all to hear: "HE comes _tonight_! I have vectored this city's Ley Lines and have discovered at last where the greatest nexus of raw quintessence lies!"

Alyona stared in amazement, that's what the Spell of Divination was for that Rayne had just performed: he was looking for the best location to bring forth the climax of his plan. But tonight? No, it was too soon, the rest of her people couldn't get here that fast-

"The blood!" he demanded.

"The b-blood? I-"

"Slayer-Zero! FAITH! Her blood that you stole, what were the results? TELL ME!"

"Um, it was-" and Ethan thrust a hand at her and the clipboard was yanked from her grip. It spun towards him, red-gold lightning tearing at it, then it imploded in a sizzle of energy. For an instant Alyona beheld a spinning web of digitized information, ones and zeroes orbiting each other among the static sigals of formulated programs, then they shot into Rayne's palms and were gone.

"YES!" he chortled, "Her blood is pure and powerful, easily three-fold the strength of her lesser sisters-in-arms! With the amount you have taken I only require two more sacrifices." and he turned toward the three occupied cells, his eyes locking on the center one, where Hope now huddled fearfully within.

Under the glamoured concealment of his hood, Ethan grinned ferally, "The other two will do. Faith's sister on the other hand, well, HE will most likely be quite famished once he has transitioned to this plain of existence. What better meal can I offer him then the sibling of Earth's most powerful Slayer?"

And in an explosion of scarlet energy the hydraulic doors on either side of Hope's cell were blasted off their reinforced hinges. Their young occupants were wrenched from their drug-induced slumber and torn from their restraints to the open air of the corridor. They screamed and howled as Rayne held them aloft in the plying embrace of his unleashed power. The hood rotated around to the pale face of Agent Mizirov.

"Bring me a blood-storage vat. A big one. Now."

Alyona spun on her heel and took off at a run, desperate to do his bidding...

**End of Part II...**


	35. Chapter X: Part III

_Down in the Reserve Station that Faith and her friends now called home..._

Lt. Peyton pulled back the door, wincing as it creaked, then counted to ten and when no answering sound of footsteps or whatever came, he peered out cautiously. A high-ceilinged cement chamber spread out before him.

Dusty grey walls and lines of widely-spaced concrete pillars tracked to the opposite side, ending in a walled-up subway platform. It looked like something left over from Cold War paranoia and Peyton couldn't care less, because none of the three twenty-somethings who had held him captive for the last two weeks were in sight. _Killing each other outside I'll bet,_ he grinned past blood-stained teeth, _works for me!_

He charged forward, looking fast for an exit point and found one; a rectangular portal on the far right, he made for it quick, limping along on pins-and-needled legs as rapidly as he could. But a card table loomed and his eyes locked on the objects set upon it's green velvet top. Amongst scattered playing cards and a crib board, a Glock automatic glistened, and beside it was the black-and-chromed rectangle of an Initiative-issue multiscanner. Peyton greedily grabbed both prizes up and rounded the table, made to run for the door.

But it slid open and a thin figure stepped through, bearing brown-paper bags.

"Hey guys, lunch is here!" announced the young Slayer Claudia as the cement portal resealed behind her, then she froze at the sight of the escaping soldier as he raised his new pistol and leveled it at her.

"Wait-"

"No." and he squeezed the trigger three times. She pitched back and the bags flew high then fell after her as she collapsed to the floor unmoving. Peyton ran for the door, typing fast into the scanner, "Come on, come on!"

As he reached the portal and began pushing at it's access plate, the code he entered lit the unit up and the triangular Initiative icon materialized, then was replaced by the face of a woman.

"_This is Eagle's Nest, report_." she demanded.

He raised the scanner as he continued to fight with the door, "This is Lt. William Peyton! I need a pick-up, ASAP!"

"_Peyton? Where are you?_"

"I don't know, I think in some abandoned subterranean installation, possibly a former government one ." he scowled at the plate, the door should be opening, he knew this kind of lock well.

"_Where have you been? You were presumed dead, at the hands of Slayer-Zero._"

"They've been holding me-" the door slid back with a rush of stone, he grinned and-_Faith loomed in and snatched the scanner from his grip, pushed him back hard!_

Peyton gaped, stumbled backwards until the backs of his knees thumped up against the card table. Desperately he raised the Glock and once again without hesitation fired. But the Slayer only grinned. He didn't understand, he kept churning the trigger until it clicked empty, his expression one of utter confusion. But somehow every shot missed. _Whaaaaat?_

Ariel popped up from behind the subway platform and Xander stepped out from behind a pillar ten meters to the flumoxed soldier's right, a sawed-off shotgun at the ready. The former Scoobie grinned, "Give it here." he said to Faith. She tossed him the scanner. Ariel jogged up beside him as Peyton continued to gawk in incomprehension.

"Did it work?" the blonde demoness asked excitedly, "Did it?"

"_Who is this!_" demanded the woman on the screen. Xander broke the connection and cycled through the new data. His grin widened, "Yeah, it worked. His code was high enough, now we have the coordinates for their HQ. _And_ the entry ciphers to get us in." he looked to Peyton and chuckled, "Thanks muchly, bud. You just did us a serious favor."

"I-but...but..." William's jaw worked, complete sentences evading him.

"Snap!" giggled Ariel at him, "You've just been Punk'd, bitch!"

He could only stare at her, then his eyes locked on the multiscanner in Xander's grip and his eyes narrowed. He made to rush them, but Ariel extended a hand and sent a bolt of pink energy sizzling into the floor between his feet. That stopped him short, to say the least. A wet spot appeared in the crotch of his uniform pants, adding to the plethora of stains of the past two weeks interrogation.

Claudia sat up and pushed the bags of empty Chinese food cartons off of her. She glared across the Station at the cowering Lt. Peyton, "That dufus _shot_ me! Can you believe it? Hello? Sixteen year-old girl here with the face of an angel. What kind of psycho does that?"

"They were only homemade blanks Xander rigged-up in the gun. Get over it, kid." said Faith as she stalked toward Peyton.

The junior Slayer climbed to her feet and smoothed down her blue jeans, "Yeah, but still, I was supposed to distract him from the door, not give him a target. Whata loser, trying to kill an innocent girl."

"The Initiative takes all kinds these days." snorted Xander as Faith caught the Lieutenant by the throat.

"I guess we don't need you any more." she grinned darkly as he gagged under her iron grip.

"Actually, we might." Xander said warningly.

"I disagree."

Ariel looked to Xander in trepidation, "Is she going to-" Faith whipped Peyton around and knocked his head against a pillar. He crumpled and she released him to fall to the marble floor.

Claudia stepped up beside her and booted him in the stomach, "Moron." then her nose wrinkled, "Ew! He smells like my Grandpa."

"Oh good, he's not dead." Ariel breathed in relief, then she looked back to their leader, "So, what's the plan?"

Xander finished getting what he wanted from the scanner, then shut it off and stuck it in his jacket pocket, "Phase Two is: we wait until nightfall, then we go in and bust out Hope, kicking Rayne's ass along the way." he nudged a canvas backpack on the floor with his boot, eliciting a muffled clang, "And we've got what we need to do that."

"I _like_ that plan." said Faith as she knelt over Peyton and began tying him up again. _What a dork this guy is_, she mused as she tightened the new knots, _I can't believe he actually fell for a trick Xander lifted right out of an old Mission: Impossible episode. Yeesh, Peyton has to be brain-dead..._

Ariel frowned, "Phase Two of the plan? Okay, whats Phase One?"

"I got it right here!" Claudia declared as she turned over a dusty box and picked up the real bags of Chinese food.

Xander grinned, "Damn right. Let's eat."

"Phase One is lunch?" asked Ariel as they crowded around the card table and began pulling up milk crates for seats.

"It's Xander's plan, so I ain't exactly shocked." Faith snorted as she peeled paper off some chopsticks and reached for the Thai noodles.

But the man-with-the-plan caught her wrist. She blinked and looked across as him, "What? I ponied-up the doe for this spread so I get first dibs."

"Just a question before we begin, okay Faith?"

"Sure, what?"

"When you paid for this, did you use the money I gave you from Giles, or did you take it out of that fifty thousand dollars you've been concealing from us?"

"From Gile's doe, why?" then her brow creased, "...aw crap..."

And the other three stared back at her across the table, eyes narrowing...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Nearly a mile and a half above the city..._

The vampire that had once been Gwendolyn Post stood in the shadow of the Empire State Building's massive lightning rod, the milling Observation Deck far below, and stared out across the huge metropolis, as afternoon darkened rapidly toward evening. The shade protecting her and her minions continued to flow ever forward, extending her sanctuary, as night approached. Her first _real_ night. The first nocturne of her rebirth.

She could feel it calling to her.

She could sense it's wanton delights beckoning.

She could almost taste the blood of her first kill.

_It will be Faith. She will be my first. I will consume her essence beneath my fangs and then burn Ariel to the earth, reducing her harlot form to the dust it was destined to be. And then both my daughter and the Slayer will have their due and this pitiful world will be MINE!_

_Yes... ...bring on the night..._

She moved forward, chasing the spreading shade, and reached the edge of the roof. She extended a hand and the finger-tips pushed beyond the perimeter and were dappled in the supper-time sunlight. They instantly began to smoke and steam but she held them there for a moment, reveling in the pain.

_No more will I walk in sunlight, no more will the sun dance upon my skin. But it is a small price to pay for the power that is now mine. It is a shame Cronin did not survive to see this, his fury at my using the prime Discipline Brand upon myself instead of gifting it upon him would have been quite entertaining. But then it was never intended for one as weak as he to use. No, fate intended it for ME, thi__s I always knew. I only thought I would find away around it's vampiric restrictions and discover a method to take control of the Dark Glyph as a mortal woman. But, so be it, a vampire I now am and what will it matter what form I utilize when I rule this paltry world. I shall cast down the sun and raise the darkness for all Eternity, and stride this globe as Empress!_

The utility door behind her swung open and one of her minions stepped through. He pushed past the hissing throng behind Post and reached her side. He lowered his gaze in respect.

"Speak." she commanded, "Tell me what you learned of Ethan Rayne and his cowed soldiers."

"Mistress," he prostrated and looked out over the vista of New York City as she did, "our contact amongst his mortal ranks has determined that he will act this very night."

"Of course he will." Gwendolyn grinned darkly. _It only makes sense. I have been reborn this day for a celestial reason..._

"He has the Slayer blood he needs now and is preparing to disembark for the location of the greatest quintessent nexus in the city."

"And where is that? Did your man find out?"

"Yes, Mistress." and he told her.

And her hungry grin widened.

"Excellent. Faith will only be the hourderve. Ethan and his gallivanting militia will be my main course. His master...my former master...let him _come_! As I planned my power is now far greater then his. And I have a score to settle as well..."

Her eyes flashed xanthic as she vamped out. Across the flesh of her back, concealed beneath her dark tweed overcoat, she felt the stirring of the Glyph five times the size of any branded into the rest of her assembled minions, "And a hunting party has been dispatched to the Complex?" he nodded, "Excellent, they will eliminate any one Rayne was foolish enough to leave behind. And perhaps even the Slayer and her band of merry idiots."

"Are you saying the Slayer and her friends will be there too?" asked her subordinate.

Post nodded as the shadows crept down the forefront of the Empire State, slashing along it's length like dark claws, hopping from window pane to window pane, rushing faster-and-faster toward the streets a thousand feet below.

"Of course they will. Destiny calls and they will come. Alexander Harris, Faith and my daughter, all three will be there. And tonight they will die. By my hand." and she raised her arms, the right one now whole once more, and watched the iridescent jade scales spreading across the limbs, "By...my..._talons_..." she rasped, her voice twisting monstrously and becoming eldritch.

_They will die..._

**End of Part III...**


	36. Chapter X: Part IV

_Twenty feet under the streets of Manhattan..._

They sat in the circle of stained milk crates Ariel had found in an alley a week earlier, and most of the Chinese food was gone now.

Ariel chewed flaky brown rice while her gaze nervously flicked back-and-forth between the other two. Claudia had excused herself ten minutes earlier and showed no signs of coming out of the Ladies Room and who could blame her, with the rancid air of frustration that had filled their Reserve Station haven so fast, once Xander had let on he knew about the money Faith had concealed.

_I know so much has happened to us as a group in the twelve weeks since I first met them in the Plaza Hotel_, Ariel brooded,_ okay, sixteen if you count our time coming back from Tara's Earth-Two. But still, how much do I really know about these two's motives? Beyond what freaky details I've managed to dredge out of them about their shared pasts. Wow, am I glad I never went to that Sunnydale place, sounds like it was Hell on Earth. I'd like to meet that Angel guy though, he sounds fun. Either way, this may be an impasse they can't get passed. Jeez, it's like Faith and Xander used to date or something, the way they lash out at each all the time_...

Her brow furrowed, _Wait a second... _

Then she shook her head mentally and fought not to laugh out loud, _nah, no way. Faith thinks she's beyond all but the most perfectly-hewn Apollo and she just isn't Xander's type. No, his type is...well me_. And the thought warmed her.

_But maybe this is it, this is the end of the line. Once we rescue Hope we'll go our separate ways,_ her stomach grew cold despite the Asian spices blazing within it's narrow depths. _They don't want me anymore anyway, seeing as I lied about Mother and nearly got them killed at the hands of Clan Oranak..._

Ariel lowered her hooded eyes sadly. _It's not like I don't deserve it. Deserve. What I _don't _deserve is their friendship, that's for damn sure. Jeez I suck, you'd think I was a life-draining half demon or something..._

She smoothed back her wavy blonde locks and licked her lips, while inside she was wagering on who would start shouting first. Her Monopoly money was on Xander, seeing how he was glaring into his greasy take-out carton and spearing the remaining noodles like they had murdered his children in a previous life. Faith was drawing faces in the soy sauce staining her paper plate while trying to look nonchalant. Which she was extremely bad at.

"...somebody _say_ something!" snapped Ariel in a rush, then gagged in surprise and nearly coughed up her last mouthful. The other two looked at her in shock as she swallowed hard and waved their concern away, "Um...sorry, I'm all right. Heh..."

Xander returned to his genocide of the noodle people, "Hey, it's not your fault, this slop is loaded with MSG. You could choke a garbage disposal with it."

Faith's eyes blazed, "I _went_ to the take-out place you said you liked!"

"Yeah, and dug this out of the dumpster behind it."

"Yep! _That's_ what I did, but not before I found some an alley-cat barfed on!"

"That would be an improvement, let me tell you!" and he chucked the now-empty carton over his shoulder, "Fifty-thousand _dollars_? Fifty _thousand_? _Fifty_!"

The Slayer leaned back and scowled, shrugged submissively, the only time Ariel could remember Faith ever doing so, "Whadda ya want me to say, huh? Okay, I didn't tell you, big...friggin..._deal_. It's not like _you_ found Black Heart Boone's cash. I did, so...so there."

He jumped to his feet, one eye narrow and shooting stakes at her, "Yeah, you found it, because I was too busy _fighting_ for your life in that warehouse while you were busy dozing off!"

Faith glared, "I ran into a column head-first while dodging gun-fire. So shoot me! And don't forget, we were there to save _her_ pony." she pointed to Ariel.

The blonde threw up her hands, "Oh no, don't bring _me_ into this. This is between you two-"

Xander whirled on her, nearly knocking over the table with his hip, "No! It's not! It's between _all _of us. You know, Ariel, I'm getting really sick of your self-deprecating behavior."

"Huh?" she gawked, "Mine? I'm sorry-"

"And would you _stop_ apologizing all the damn time! You are a part of the team, we're all perfectly equal here, your opinion matters. We _trust_ you, you're our pal, so quit bringing yourself down, okay?"

"Um..."

Xander turned back to Faith who had discarded her plate and was slurping on a diet Coke now, "And equal trust means equal responsibility. You had no right to keep this from me, especially considering all we've been through-"

"Oh please." Faith put the drink down on the now lop-sided table and stood, smoothed down her black leather pants, "I didn't tell you for exactly this reason: because you'd have a freak-attack and go all Giles on me."

"Giles? Go all Giles? I am _not _Giles."

"I'm part of the group," Ariel said proudly to herself, "cool..." then she looked up, "Hey, does that mean I get a salary like you two?"

Faith rolled her eyes and shook her head, "We don't get a salary, we get Welfare. I'm planning to use my next allotment to buy a box of Kraft Dinner."

"And here I thought you wouldn't need it," growled Xander, "seeing as you have _fifty thousand dollars_ stuffed down your shirt!"

"Forty-eight thousand." Faith corrected.

His eye bulged, "What happened to the other two?"

"Well, a hundred here, fifty there. Oh," she looked downwards proudly, "and these pants. They only cost nine hundred, what a bargain, huh? Wicked-lookin on me, ain't they?" she stood up and posed, "Screw Jennifer Garner, next to me she's Roseanne Barr."

Ariel nodded her approval, "Yeah, they really accentuate your hips. I'd love a pair in burgundy."

"Oh, they have some."

"Really? Do they have pockets on the seat?" Faith turned round, Ariel nodded, "I like them with the little silver chains at the hip."

"The ones with the star charms?"

"Crescent moons. I love crescent moons. Especially if they're smiling-"

"OH MY FRIGGIN _GOD_!" roared Xander, hands slapped to the sides of his head.

The two women looked back at him. Ariel blushed slightly and Faith sneered, "There a problem, oh great and mighty leader?"

He scowled, "Oh, is that it? This is about what happened on the cliff back on Earth-Two? Just for once, for the safety of the three of us, I exercised the power granted me by the Council to lead the New York mission, and you still resent me for it."

Faith sneered, "Oh yeah, you leader-shipped me off a cliff then got Ariel knocked out and the two of you captured by the Dark Legion and imprisoned on a Flying Fortress where you had to be rescued by Kendra and Tara who only knew where to find you because_ I _told them after spending most of an hour bare-hand climbing back _up_ the cliff that your brilliant plan got me thrown off of in the FIRST PLACE!"

For a long moment the only noise was the subway rails actually _vibrating_ from the terrific sound waves the Slayer had generated.

Claudia opened the door to the bathroom and peaked out fearfully.

Ariel shifted closer to Xander, eyes wide. "Whoa..."

"Wow," he agreed, "she said that all in one breath."

"I know." the blonde nodded in awe, "I wish I had lung capacity like that."

"Well, it takes lots of practice." he explained, "You see, Faith's had alot of boyfriends, and-"

Faith yanked the bank-roll free of her shirt and threw it at him, "FINE! Take it! Take all forty-eight thousand of it! Take it, jam it up your rectum, vomit it out your mouth, launder it, then mail it back to Giles so he can dust it for magical fingerprints and fairy-DNA! I just don't care anymore!"

As green bills exploded in his face and rained down over him and Ariel, Xander frowned in confusion, "Huh? What the heck are you talking about?"

Faith fumed and stomped her foot, "What the hell do you _think_ I'm talkin about? You wanna give the money to the Watchers Council. Wow, there's a damn shocker."

"What? No I don't."

She blinked, looked back at him in surprise, "What? You don't?"

He shook his head firmly, "Hell no. I want my share."

"Your...share..."

He nodded, smiled.

"But...but..."

"What am I, stupid? Hello! Payday! I want one of those big plasma screens and a complete Deep Space Nine season DVD set."

Ariel beamed in excitement, "Ooo! I've been dying to see that! It's just not the same watching DS9 on SPIKE TV. All those dumb commercials for Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, jeez I hate that show."

He shrugged, "I dunno, it has it's moments. This one guy took a header into a big pile of whip cream last week and it looked just like you when you fell off the Guggenheim."

Ariel scowled, brushed a fifty from his shoulder, "How'd _you_ like to fall off the Guggenheim?"

"Actually, been there, done that, remember?"

"Oh, right. Heh, sorry." he frowned and she winced, "Oh, didn't mean to apologize again, I'm stopping. That's the end of it, sorry-damn!"

They looked down to see Faith at their feet, grabbing up cash by the hand-full. She sighed, "Hey, I guess I read you all wrong, Harris. You're not so anal after all."

He knelt and helped her, "Yep, beneath this gritty and handsome exterior beats the heart of Scrooge McDuck. All you had to do was ask." he looked around him at the empty Reserve Station, "Anyway, maybe it's good that you held back until now. Because now we can use some of it to fix up our new headquarters."

Faith's eyes widened, then she grinned, "Hey! That's a wicked idea! Yeah, it's perfect! _And_ no rent."

Ariel nodded, "I love it, no more hotels. And once we make it homey no vampires can get in without an invite, unlike a hotel suite." she frowned then, "Humph, but no more room service. Hey, do either of you know how to cook?"

"I'm really good at making reservations." replied Xander as he stood and started thumb-counting the money.

"I, um, spent a year and a half working in a cafeteria." Faith said, somewhat reluctantly, "And I was told by the not-so happy-go-lucky customers that the stuff I churned out was tolerable."

"Cafeteria?" asked Claudia, now back with the group and looking very happy that they weren't throttling each other as she'd feared they might. Xander mimed being locked in a jail cell at the younger girl. Her eyebrows went up, "Oh...hey, works for me. I love stale bread and warm water in tin cups."

"Funny." said Faith sardonically, "Really funny." then she looked to Xander whose gaze was already turned inward and making mental blue-prints.

"So, carpenter-boy, can you work a miracle and turn this hovel into Wayne Manor?"

He looked about him and shrugged, "I dunno about Wayne Manor, but I'm thinkin the Batcave might not be too far off." then he frowned solidly, "But first-things-first. In exactly one hour we're going into the Initiative's New York HQ and busting your sister out. And anybody who gets in our way-"

"-will be subdued without being killed." Ariel finished for him quickly.

Faith scowled but Xander nodded in agreement, "Exactly. Now, lets get ready..."

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Nightfall..._

Greasy steam pumped from the gutters along either side of the wide asphalt embankment as the three of them marched down it's length, side-by-side. Their faces were intent, the newly risen crescent moon blazing down upon their youngish faces, casting them as the twilight-infused warriors they were.

Faith on the left, clad all in black leather with a scratched and pitted katanna hanging from her right hand. She'd wanted a more traditional Slayer sidearm like a straight-saber or a bastard broadsword, but the Samurai weapon was the best Xander had been able to scavenge from the local pawnshops with their budget. At least it was the real deal and not some Kill Bill fanboy knock-off.

_I'm gonna show these paramilitary rednecks what a Slayer_ really _can do. I'm gonna tear that Initiative base apart with my bare hands and chop away at that Rayne bastard until he squeals out like a bitch where he's locked away Hope. And then I'm going to take this blade and_

Ariel was on the right, wearing her trademark skintight jeans, powder-blue stonewashed DK ones this time, and under the oxblood jacket Faith had gifted to her permanently, a Dave Chappelle tee proudly proclaimed "I'm Rich, Bi-atch! Honk! Honk!" The energized emotion of the logo did little to reflect the inner turmoil swarming like locusts through the tow-headed young woman.

_Mother is out there...I can feel her, just like I used to be able to do as a kid, though I thought it would be gone since I've grown up. So much for that happy hypothesis. And am I crazy but does it seem to be coming in even stronger lately, ever since our fight in the hospital? She's not going to stop until I'm dead, and with those vamps backing her up she's going to mow through Faith and Xander to get to me, I just know it..._

Ariel's hazel gaze hardened and her lips curled back. _Nope, not gonna let that happen. Once we've freed Hope that's IT! Yep, I'm going to track Mother down and end this all on my own, once and for all..._

In the center, their makeshift leader marched, in camo cargo pants and an olive web vest he'd bought at an Army-Navy surplus store. His trademark blazer-style grey leather jacket topped it off, bulging under his solid chest and wide shoulders. Moonlight glinted off his greased-back dark hair and danced on the curvature of the black leather eyepatch strapped across his empty left eye-socket. His face was grim and his strong jaw was set, he was the essence of every John Wayne movie he'd watched fifty times as a kid, and the bold readiness framing his perceptions was the real deal, brought forth by the importance of what he and the others were about to do.

What they _had_ to do.

Ethan Rayne was more then just a pain in the butt now; this wasn't loco Halloween night or teen-steam candy bars. This was serious hard-core mojo the chaotic maniac was going for, Xander could tell.

_I'm going to put a stop to him once and for all. Buffy couldn't because that's the good person she is, and even Giles who really hated Rayne couldn't do what I'm going to have to do tonight. I know why Ariel keeps bring up the no killing anybody thing, because she can see it in my eye when we talk about him, hear it in my voice when we were planning this take-down. But the bastard has gone over the edge and needs putting down in a SERIOUS way, or this whole planet is going to pay the price, I just know it. If it costs me Ari, then so be it, I love her but doing this job means making sacrifices normal people can't._

_And if she isn't willing to understand that and she leaves me, then...then I think I will love her even more..._

The chain-link gates of a factory loomed and the multiscanner in Xander's right hand chimed like a synthesizer, declaring itself home, so he shut it off and clipped it back on his hip, then drew the sawed-off 10-gauge from under his coat and fired off a round, as the three of them closed on the gate. The lock was reduced to shreds of metal and he shouldered his way through.

A wide parking lot spread out before them and a hulking three-story textile factory rose up dead-ahead, they crossed the cracked pavement and ascended a low set of cement stairs ending in the main entrance. Faith booted the frosted door out of it's frame and they passed through into what should have been the lobby and stopped.

A moment later Claudia jogged in behind them, breathing hard with her legs bowing under the heavy backpack she wore. "Whoa, is it...just me or...is this thing getting heavier with every step?" she sucked in air and looked across at the three twenty-somethings. They were looking about them at the inside of the factory. Claudia frowned and stepped past them, taking a gander herself.

She frowned, "Um...isn't there supposed to be, you know, something in here?"

But there wasn't. The entire factory was one long and towering empty shell, just a vacant facility with no rooms, no machinery, nothing at all.

Xander moved forward, "Spread out, look for any signs of the Initiative. Remember, their HQ is most likely beneath us."

"Well, I'd doubt it's above us, Harris." snorted Faith as she jogged to the center of the floor and gestured with her upturned katanna at the high ceiling, "And anyway, doesn't that look like a retractable skylight?"

Ariel followed her sword point and nodded, "Yeah, it does."

"Sans the glass." Xander confirmed, "Perfect for launching a helicopter." _This has to be it. Hmmm, maybe we should have brought the chopper we stole from them, for back-up or something. Oh well, it's waiting on a roof in Brooklyn if we need it later. And there's always the autopilot option..._

Claudia pointed to the left wall, "There's garage doors down have the length, all rigged up remotely, see?"

Xander joined the three women in the center of the empty floor and pulled out his multiscanner, thumbed it to life, "Right, let's see if this thing can-"

"_Recognized: William R. Peyton, Lieutenant._" declared a monotone female voice all around them.

They instantly went back-to-back, Faith's katanna flashing up to the ready. Xander jacked another shell into the Winchester's chamber and leveled it two-handed, while Claudia fingered the battle axe he had lent her. Ariel just raised her fists and pink energy crackled across the tightening knuckles.

"Remember, they're human." cautioned Xander, "So aim to disable, not to kill."

"Sorry, my ears appear to be clogged." sneered Faith, searching the rising shadows for the first sign of attack.

"Faith..." he warned.

"Yeah, yeah, I get ya." she scowled, "Nobody ever lets me play."

"Hey, I'm feel your pain, trust me. But-" the floor beneath them shuddered and suddenly they were descending fast as it dropped away.

"Jumpin Jehosophat..." muttered Xander as they descended on what now was revealed to be a hydraulic lift into the depths of a canyon-esque Initiative Operations Hanger, very similar to the one he'd infiltrated on more then one occasion beneath the campus of U.C. Sunnydale. Though this one lacked a vivisection pit in it's middle and the lead-sheathe'd walls were lined with vehicle support equipment: fuel pumps and stunted hanger grips, portable carts loaded with tools and spare parts. The football field-length chamber stank of old grease and octane.

With a clank that vibrated through the foursome's footwear, the industrial elevator platform halted at ground level and everything was still. A hollow silence echoed all around them and they stood there for nearly a minute, waiting for enemy retaliation.

But it never came.

"They're...they're gone..." Ariel said at last, her voice reverberating across the room like they were at the edge of the Grand Canyon. She appeared to be right; there were no vehicles present. No Humvees, no helicopters.

"ECHO!" Claudia shouted and her voice bounced around the huge chamber.

Ariel and Xander jumped. Faith glared at her, "Don't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because...um...uh..." and the Faith shrugged and let loose one of her own, "MARCO!" _marco-marco-marco_

"POLO!" answered Ariel. _polo-polo-polo_

"Hee-hee!" laughed Claudia and she cupped hands to her mouth, "TITS-" Xander clamped a hand across her mouth.

"Wait." he breathed and the three women fell silent. He jogged forward, leaving them behind, and made for the center of the room, where something glinted redly from the floor.

He stooped and came up with what looked like a curved and faceted ruby, as wide across as his palm. He turned back toward them and peered down at it, "There's something moving inside it-" _PHWAM!_ Crimson light blazed forth, spreading up ten feet into the air between them, and solidified into a ghost-like representation of a cloaked figure.

"_I knew you would come._" boomed the no longer disguised voice of Ethan Rayne, "_The cut-short communication from my man Peyton only confirmed it. But you're too late, boys and girls, far-far too late._"

"Goddamn it!" snarled Faith and she kicked over a stack of metallic crates beside the lift.

"_But I really want to include you in whats going to be a BIG evening for me, the Initiative, hell, the_ whole world _actually. Oh, and Faith, I'm going to sacrifice your sister tonight. Anyway, you simply must come and join us, and here is where we're at:_"

And incredibly he told them.

Then the glamour vanished in a fizzle of red sparks and Xander shook his head in disbelief, "What an arrogant moron. I swear, with every passing year these maniacs I end up facing get more and more overconfident. It's a geometric progression, I swear."

"He's going to kill Hope." said Ariel, her face pale.

"Like, color me shocked." snapped Faith as she dug through the equipment she'd up-ended from the crates. She came up with black canvas Initiative-issue tote sealed with a padlock. She squeezed the lock into metal jelly and threw back the flap. She peered inside and frowned decisively, "Yeah, that'll do." then she stuck it under her arm and stepped back aboard the elevator.

Claudia had found the lift controls in the wall behind them and was pounding on them mercilessly. But she appeared to do something right because the platform began to rise. Xander hoofed it back and jumped aboard, "Hey now, don't leave me behind."

"Never." Ariel smiled thinly.

As the lift reached the factory floor once more, Xander squared his shoulders, "Okay, here's how we're going to play this-"

But Faith had already taken off at a dead-run. He scowled and called after her, "Wait! We go as a group! Faith! We need to be together in this!"

"You three go get the copter!" she hollered back, "We're gonna need all the fire-power we can get!" then she was gone.

Xander looked at Ariel and she threw up her hands, "You heard the Slayer, lets get to it."

He frowned but agreed, then looked away from her, "Hey Claudia, I think it would be best if you went back to our hide...out... Okay, where'd she go?"

But all that remained of Claudia was the heavy backpack on the floor beside them...

**End of Part IV...**


	37. Chapter X: Part V

_On the other side of New York City..._

The last of the large crowds had already passed through the gates and only the stragglers were left to come. The two portly security guards assigned to Gate 66 were arguing over who was going to win tonight, the white one favoring the Comets loudly, when the wind started to pick up.

Their gazes turned to the outside, instantly locking onto the largest gap in the parking lot. Four points of bright yellow-white light were rapidly expanding, accompanied by the increasing rush of air. But there was no sound of a helicopter to indicate that some high-up political power-player or rich celebrity was arriving late for the game. And why four lights instead of one?

The black guard pushed through the turnstile and jogged out, holding his ball cap to keep it from blowing free. He reached the perimeter of the lights, now each easily three meters across, and peered upwards.

"Well? What is it?" called out the guard who had remained behind.

"Its-" _CRACK!_ a shot rang out and the exposed guard jerked, pitched over backwards onto the asphalt.

The other guard jumped as if he'd been shot himself. He fumbled desperately for the radio on his belt, dropping it in his panic. He was on his hands and knees digging for it under the base of a turnstile when four gleaming black military helicopters dropped into view and set down on extending landing gear. They lurched, wide blades autorotorting nearly silently in the night air, then they were still and their side doors slid back. Black uniformed soldiers poured forth, each clutching lethal-looking H-K XM8 carbines. They sprinted for the door as the guard recovered enough to reach for the emergency button. The two soldiers in the lead snapped up their weapons and opened up, nailing him in the chest with twin streams of high-velocity slugs. He lurched backwards and fell dead to the floor.

A moment later their leader stepped free from his chopper, followed by Alyona. Behind her came two men with drawn Glocks, herding a straight-jacketed Hope between them. She struggled at the canvas restraints but they were reinforced with cords of titanium, too resilient even for the strength of a Slayer.

Without a word the lead group entered the building, their leader taking point, and after him poured a double line of soldiers, fed first from the four military helicopters, then later from the armada of black Humvees that had begun arriving moments after the helicopters touchdown.

They piled into the huge building and split up into threes and fours, subduing whoever they came across in the many restaurants and bars spread out through the entertainment complex. This was happening at six other gates as well, the entire air and land compliment of the Initiative Complex's vehicles were now strategically surrounding the uptown building. Nobody else was coming in and not a soul was getting out without their master's say so. And he wasn't saying so.

As of _now_, Madison Square Gardens belonged to Ethan Rayne...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Faith's rapid sprint had ended five blocks away next to a four lane thoroughfare, and she crouched beside the curb, as the thinning traffic winged by in both directions, disassembling the tote she'd extracted from the Complex.

Claudia rounded the corner of a warehouse breathing hard and came to a halt, her back to an instant teller. She looked across at the older girl beside her, "Wow...you...move _really_ fast when you're pissed."

Faith didn't answer, she just stood, kicking the now empty bag away, and the younger blonde shrank back. But it wasn't just the scary looking projectile weapon now gripped in her right hand or the brown leather bandolier slung crosswise over the woman's chest, notched with a descending row of fat cone-nosed copper shells. No, mostly it was the terrifying expression on Faith's sultry face, Claudia had never seen one like it. She looked like the entire Universe had done her wrong and NOW she was going to get even.

_I would _not _want to be that Rayne guy right now,_ the junior Slayer digested as she backed up fast.

"Stand back." snapped Faith and she stepped into the street.

"Way ahead of you."

The Slayer marched through traffic, cars screeching and honking all around her, and came to a halt in the third lane. She turned and slung the compact grenade launcher over her shoulder, then slowly raised her gaze and locked it on an object she'd already selected, as it bore down on her at sixty miles an hour.

His name was Buford Koch and he was three hundred pounds of scarred and grizzled menace, a member for life of the Plutonic Kobolds, a biker gang who even the NYPD were afraid of.

Faith wasn't afraid.

Koch's goggled eyes locked on the woman in black standing directly in his path and his busy eyebrows went up. There was no time to swerve his Harley, she was expanding before him too rapidly, "HEY! GET OUTA THE-"

Faith sprang forward and into the air, caught the wide handlebars and inverted, landed on the fat gas tank and drove her left boot into his chest with a _THUD!_

The biker flew free and backwards, landed hard on the asphalt five meters back. Still facing the wrong way, Faith dropped into the customized leather saddle and reached behind her, squeezed the brake. She jammed her feet down and the heavy cycle ground to a leaning halt. She lifted a leg and pivoted round to face front, unslung the M-79 from her shoulder.

Claudia gawked in astonishment from the curb, "Holy crap..."

Cars and trucks were now halted in both directions, twisted in and out of their lanes, while horns blared up and down the four lane street. Claudia nervously stepped into the road and weaved her way past the cars and their shouting motorists to reach the senior Slayer where she sat upon her new transport.

The younger girl tore her eyes from the Harley's gleaming cherryblack paint-job and took in the weapon Faith was toting. It closely resembled a large bore, single barrel, sawn-off shotgun, much like Xander's Elsabelle, though the barrel was wider and it had a sling. Faith opened the breach and inspected the bore. It had been fired a few times. "Works for me." then she slid one of the fat 40mm H.E. grenades from the bandolier and inserted it, flipped the one-shot "blopper" grenade launcher closed with a snap of the wrist.

"I'm...I'm coming with you." the younger girl said in a rush.

Faith scowled and shook her head, "No. Just go back to the Reserve Station, Claudia."

The other girl pouted, "Nope. I'm coming. I'm a Slayer."

"You don't even know what that means."

"You and Xander have been training me for two weeks now, so-"

"Two weeks." Faith snorted harshly, "You just don't get it, do ya? This ain't gonna be no cake-walk, this is for _real_. Some serious mojo is about to be unleashed on this city and-"

"-and I'm going to help stop it." snapped the girl, her eyes hardening, "It's my _destiny_."

"Destiny?" Faith laughed, "Destiny is a bastard who needs his balls handed to him, don't you get it? This Slayer gig will ruin you, Claude. It turned _me_ into a murderer, and killed Buffy Summers _twice_. Look, you're only sixteen, you've got your whole life ahead of you. Just go back home to Indiana now and forget-"

"You bitch! Get OFF my hog!" roared Koch as he reared up beside them. He reached for Faith with a grubby mitt and-_Claudia_ blocked his way and caught his wrist. She glared up at his twice-her-height stature.

"Get...lost..." she growled, her formerly soprano-pitched young voice transformed into a husky rasp that made the bear of a man blink.

He yanked his arm free of her grip and pulled a large .44 Magnum revolver from his jacket, leveled it at the diminutive blonde's face, "I told ya, get off my-" her hand blurred up and the gun was hers, she bent double and delivered a kick that knocked the driving goggles from Koch's eyes and sent him flying backwards, over the hood of a convertible.

As the biker crashed unmoving on the sidewalk, all the honking stopped at once, and Claudia caught Koch's goggles from the air and snapped them on over her own eyes. She stuck the pistol in the waistband of her jeans and swung onto the Harley behind Faith, "Let's motor."

And the older Slayer grinned, "Yeah, lets motor."

She shoved the M-79 across the handlebars, through the clutch and brake cables, then roared off in a squeal of peeling rubber...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_The Gardens..._

The Initiative had taken over so fast none of the 18,000 ticket holders in the basketball Arena were even aware of it. It didn't hurt that the much anticipated game was about to get under way. The Houston Comets players were already waiting along their side of the wide court and within one minute they would be joined by the challenging hometown team. Hyped rock music echoed across the open air stadium and the seated crowd was enjoying the cool night air as it breezed down from the star-flecked nocturnal sky.

Nobody noticed the lone figure as he emerged from the tunnel exiting beside Section 116, though the heavy Carpathian wool cloak he was shrouded under would have caused notice if they had. Fearlessly he marched down the steps to ground level and threw out a hand. Red-gold energy crackled forth and blasted the Employees Only gate open before him. A pair of burly security guards zoned in on him, meaty arms rising to tackle, he flung out his arms and blasted them back in a flare of power.

This got noticed.

A confused murmur spread through the assembled crowd and thousands of pairs of eyes turned in his direction as he strode out onto the gleaming pine court and stopped in the exact center. The New York Liberty members were jogging out through their door on the opposite side and he waited until they were all assembled, then he threw up his hands.

"_Mida Conticesco_!" he commanded in Latin and everybody froze.

Everybody. All 18,000, plus staff and players.

Nobody moved, nobody even breathed, as the massive suspension spell took hold. The only noise now was the annoying organ music, now ten times as loud as no voices were muting it. Rayne extended a hand and a bolt of power wiped out every last speaker, and then it too was gone.

He grinned savagely behind his cowl, "Perfect. Yes!" he shook his fists in excitement, the sense of sheer control was nearly overwhelming. Ever since he'd discovered tonight was the night for the final phase he had given up rationing the power his master had infused him with a year and a half ago.

Because there was no longer any need whatsoever. _If Ripper could only see me now..._

He could waste it all he liked and it wouldn't matter because HE would soon be here and when he took over Ethan would have all the power he could ever want, so to _hell_ with worrying about his reserves running dry and the glamour currently mesmerizing the Initiative to his will running out.

They'd be all dead soon anyway. HE didn't like anybody but his own personal soldiers having any kind of power, and that meant that all mortal armies on Earth were about to become just a memory. Like freedom for anybody but the chosen few. Which right now was only him, Ethan Rayne. That's right, he was about to become right hand to a GOD.

And all he had left to do was summon him forth.

"The spell is active, you are free to come in!" he called out, and his soldiers streamed in from all sides, taking up tactical positions all over the Arena. Once they were in place, Alyona entered, followed by the Complex's senior officers, the former General dressed as Rayne, in a heavy wool robe. Behind them came Hope between her two guards, she'd given up trying to struggle, and she looked about the Gardens mesmerized by the incredible events that were transpiring.

Ethan read her expression and grinned, _she hasn't seen _anything_ yet, yes indeed..._

"Prepare the Circle." he commanded and the officers got to work.

Two minutes later it was complete, and now a ten-foot ring glowed from the center of the court, a five-point magic star dividing it up. Just like the ones before it in Central Park and on the Brooklyn Bridge, each section of the icon contained a different rune, though these were the Bridge's set of transdimensional coordinates, not the ones dangerously experimented with firstly in the Park.

Ethan and the General knelt across from each other and began to chant in Latin.

Two years ago when Ethan had first formed a Circle like this in the basement of the Nevada prison complex he'd been sentenced to by Riley Finn, it had been the opposite of this ring; designed to send him _out_ of this Earth and into another one. And it had worked perfectly on the first try, to his own amazement.

For more then a year he had traveled from one dimension to another, searching for the power he would need to return to his home realm and gain revenge on those who had wronged him. And finally on a dark plain of limbo he had found what he sought, and so much more. The being imprisoned there had infused him with a taste of it's own power and sent him back home, even allowing him to take with him Gwendolyn Post who had already been there when he arrived, a broken plaything for the realm's master.

Rayne had been shocked to find her there and at the time it had appeared she would make the perfect ally and servant to help forward his plan once he got home. HE had even returned her soul for the time being and given her a gift of power in the form of a bracelet, though it was only a fraction of that which had been infused into Rayne.

It should have been the perfect alliance, so of course it wasn't...

Soon after their return, Gwendolyn began to buck his authority and after she had used her knowledge and new-found abilities to take control of the Oranak vampire clan she had stopped following his orders all together. But Rayne really could care less at that point; he had his own group to manage now and Post's ghouls proved useful in rounding up the Slayers he needed to fuel his experiments in interdimensional summoning. It was one thing for a mere mortal to crossover, that was child's play. But to free the master from his prison and bring him forth to the one place he had been exiled from, now _that_ would require precise calculations and planning.

But all that was done now. The wait was over. What Ethan had failed to do on the Bridge would now be successful _here_. The Ley Lines were at their peak and enough Chosen blood had been gathered. He was _ready_.

As the chanting continued, a powerful charge began to rise and red energy crackled along the Circle. Rayne and the General finished the first incantation and touched hands, cementing the ritual, then Ethan gestured Alyona forward. She reached the pulsating ring, then hesitantly stepped into it.

She looked back at the stands, where the restrained young Slayer stood, hair flying in the wind disturbance coming from the ritual, her desperate eyes darting in all directions, looking for a way to escape. Alyona looked back to Ethan, "Shall I bring the girl down? You must be ready to use her as the receptacle to house your masters essence."

"Actually no." he replied, rising and reaching forward to grasp her shoulders, "You see, _Comrade_, I have all the Slayer blood I need. The sacrifice requires a normal mortal, of good physical shape and purity of mind."

"But Lieutenant Peyton-"

"-is in the hands of the enemy. And you on the other hand are here. _Ad Conticesco_!" red-gold energy flowed from his fingers and cocooned her. Then it was gone and the wide-eyed Russian witch stood frozen like a statue. He slid her forward to the center of the Circle.

He waved the General forward and he poured a heavy vat of blood over Alyona's head. It coursed down her body and coated her fully, crackling with power as it came.

"It was nice knowing you, Alyona. Enjoy Arboria." sneered Ethan, then he stepped back and finished the incantation, "_Eriyshon_, hear my prayer! Open the gates between this world and the one indicated!" power sizzled from his hands and the Circle flared with mystic light.

"Open the prison of Limbo and bring my master forth! _Abi_!"

And there was a tremendous flash of light and a huge roar of sound and-Alyona vanished into an energized spangle of red-gold power and HE stood there in her place!

"YES!" yelled Rayne in jubilation and fell to his knees, bowed his head to the court. Across the vast and towering Arena, the Initiative soldiers situated amongst the frozen crowd did as their leader. They fell to their knees in supplication, pressed their rifles to their chests and bowed their heads.

Iridescent smoke pillowing the varnished deck beneath his sandaled feet and rising up to zephyr the knee-length hem of his glistening crimson toga, the ten-foot promethean opened his eyes and surveyed the huge chamber he now found himself in, "YES..."

His head rotated first this way then that, revealing him to have not one but _two_ faces, the second mounted on the back of his skull. Both were identical and echoed each other's malevolent expressions. His bearded faces grinned widely, his twin pairs of near-glowing eyes danced excitedly. He raised monstrously-muscled arms and shook his fists to the ebony heavens, "I HAVE RETURNED! THE EARTH WILL ONCE MORE TREMBLE UNDER MY WILL, THE WILL OF THE GOD JANUS! AFTER TWO MILLENIA I STRIDE THIS PLAIN ONCE MORE AND _NONE _SHALL STAND AGAINST ME! NONE!"

"Oh, I beg to differ." spoke a voice from seven levels up.

Ethan and his master looked up sharply to see Gwendolyn Post standing on a railed landing in the North Quad. The wind blowing down from the open roof of the Arena plastered the beige overcoat tight to her body and her released blonde tresses blew about her skull like golden flames.

Rayne scowled and rose, raised his hands, they sparkled to life with his granted power, "You shouldn't have come here, Post, you really shouldn't have."

"SO... THE SLAVE WHO HAS BETRAYED NOW SEEKS RETRIBUTION UPON ME?" and Janus chortled madly, his booming twin vocalizations sounding out across the Arena in stereo, "HOLD, MY SERVANT." he commanded to Rayne and the Magus did so, lowering his heavy sleeves and reigning in the spell he was about to cast.

The God stepped forward and raised a hand, "YOU WILL _BURN_, SLAVE." gleaming gold light coruscated forth from his palm and lanced upwards toward her.

"_Penso Occurro_." Post intoned and the xanthic beam slammed into an oval force-field which materialized before her. It dissipated in four directions, slamming into seats and people, vaporizing them into charred ash.

Gwendolyn grinned.

Her former master did not.

"MORTAL TRICKS WILL NOT STAND AGAINST ME FOR LONG, SLAVE." Janus raised his arms like wings and levitated upwards.

He came to a hover level with her, fifteen meters above the basketball court, then he slapped his palms together. Gold flame rushed from between them and flashed toward her in the form of a spinning ball of searing flame. It struck her shield and detonated it in a rush of carnic light. Post stood her ground, the smile never leaving her face. Janus threw back an arm and another sphere of destruction materialized on it's palm, "NOW, WOMAN, FEEL MY UNTETHERED WRATH!" and he hurled it at her. Below, Ethan threw up heavy sleeves to cover his face and was glad his soldiers still had their faces bowed.

The fireball struck Post dead-on and expanded instantly into a five meter-wide balefire. It seared and scalded all about her at five thousand degrees, reducing the railing at the edge of the landing to bubbling grey slag and ignighting the deck and wall behind her. Then the flame-sphere detonated outwards in a blaze that would have blinded any mortal looking directly at it, and when the light finally faded Janus looked across at-

Gwendolyn Post! Who stood there proudly and untouched, her naked body gleaming in the harsh Garden lights. The last shreds of her former clothing spiraled down into the heap of ash ringing her perfect toes, and she laughed wickedly.

Janus gaped.

"BUT...BUT...NONE BUT ANOTHER GOD COULD STAND AGAINST SUCH A FORCE!"

"I know." she replied and her face vamped.

"YOU ARE NOW VAMPYRE?"

"She's a vampire?" gasped Rayne, and his face twisted.

"STILL, A NOSFERATU IS BARELY A DEMON. YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE THE POWER TO STAND UP TO ME."

"Unless..." muttered Rayne and a cold chill twisted his stomach. _Oh bollocks..._

"You are correct." Post replied as she stepped forward to the edge of the landing, her bare feet squelching through the liquid steel puddling on the charred cement.

"No vampire has the power to stand up to you, Janus. No vampire from _this_ time period. But the original Nosferatu who stalked this plain, now they were a different story all together. They had the power of the Old Ones coursing through their veins. And now..." her skin scaled jade and the huge Glyph branded into her back glowed like flame, "...so do I..." and it was like she literally exploded a hundred-fold, her body expanding in a rush of bubbling reptilian flesh and then Gwendolyn the vampire was gone.

And Gwendolyn the monstrous dragon was _here_...

**End of Part V...**


	38. Chapter X: Part VI

_Back at the factory..._

Xander Harris stood inside the hulking structure, his expression one of extreme annoyance at the two now-vanished Slayers that had taken off without even one thought of asking his opinion.

"So much for me being in charge..."

He sullenly stalked toward the front door of the pretend textile mill, "I don't get no respect, let tell you, no respect at all."

"Aw, Faith still respects you," counseled Ariel behind him, "don't hack it, Xander, she's just a bit bullheaded."

"A _bit_ bullheaded?" he sidestepped the ruined door they'd downed to get inside and closed on the exit, "Ari, she's got horns and a ring through her nose."

"Wow, exaggerate much?" Ariel asked as they stepped free of the empty building.

He grinned over at her, "Heh, you're getting to be more like an honorary Sunnydale native every day."

"I'm sorry I'll never see the place." she frowned.

"No you're not, trust me. Hellmouths are no fun...at...all..." he trailed off at the site suddenly before him. He slipped a hand fast under his coat and typed a quick command into the multiscanner hanging from his hip.

Ariel halted with him on the factory's cement stairs and together they stared down at the line of leather-clad Oranak vampires waiting for them, fangs glinting and yellow eyes shinning like headlamps.

"Oh look, Ariel," Xander remarked sarcastically, "the Marilyn Manson lookalike competition has started, and you forgot your costume."

"That's me," she shrugged, "always coming unprepared."

"Speak for yourself." and he threw back his jacket, the cold black steel of the shotgun emerging in a blur and then he was holding it before him one-handed. His lips twisted into a grin, "_Hasta la vista_." and he fired nearly point-blank.

The vamp in the middle bucked back a step as he caught the shell square in the chest. Then he recovered and grinned. The other vamps chuckled darkly, the one hit the loudest, "You really didn't think that could stop us, did you?"

"Wait for it." Xander said.

And then the vampire threw back his head and howled as he suddenly exploded into pearly ash!

...

...The other Oranaks shrank away from the thinning dust cloud as the rumble of the very explosive dusting faded from their eardrums. The closest one's jaw sagged, "Wha-How?" she gawked, "What the heck just happened?"

"Essence of holy water, enhanced with fulminated wood particles." explained Xander as he stalked down the steps, "My own private recipe, I packed the shells myself. For real this time." he jacked another round into the chamber, his hands moving slowly and fluidly on the lever, as if he'd done it a thousand times. The _ker-chack_ was thunderous in the parking lot.

"For real?" the vampiress asked in confusion.

"Sorry, wrong world and a different vamp." he leveled the shotgun at her face, "Same result though." _BOOM!_ her head detonated in a gooey spray.

Four vamps in the back looked at each other and instantly formed the decision that they should pursue the two Slayers who had split four minutes earlier. As one they crouched then sprang into the air, morphing into bat-form in a rush of liquid flesh. They soared high and vanished into the night sky.

The rest lacked that particular Discipline, so they stayed on the ground. But not in the same shape.

Xander plunged into the middle of the group and Ariel vaulted off the steps to land back-to-back with him, as the remaining six vampires shuddered and howled, then fell to their hands-and-knees. As they transmogrified into night-wolves, the Succubus raised strobing fists and her eyes flashed incarnadine, "Kill'em all!" she declared.

Xander loved the sound of that as he rapidly fed new shells into Elsabelle from his jacket pocket, "You know what they say: if you can't lower Heaven..." he leveled the shotgun and took aim, "...then RAISE HELL!"

KA-_BOOM!_

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Just pulling onto Broadway..._

The big Harley 1380cc FatBoy centered then thundered up New York City's most famous boulevard.

At the helm was a person who by any normal rights had no business being behind the handlebars of such a demanding vehicle. But she was far from a normal person. Her name was Faith and she was a Slayer. No, more then that, she was _the_ Slayer, the truly Chosen One. The only woman on Earth still in her first granted life to be picked by the fates to wield the mystical strengths allowing her to stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness.

What she wasn't aware of though, was the one major difference between her and the rest of the 'enhanced' young women. Unlike her, their power had been granted them by a white wicca during the planet's _last _most desperate hour. They had her strength, her agility, her unnatural talents for hand-to-hand combat and weapons.

But the one thing she could do which was beyond them, was pass her destiny onto a new host. For when the two hundred plus women now playing at what Faith was born to do were dead and buried, only _she _would have a successor. And despite all the mistakes she had made in her six years as a supernaturally-charged warrior, she was still worthy of the title. The title of

"SLAYER!" screeched the bat-Hybrid in the lead, as the four of transmogrified vamps soared down toward her, casting hulking pterodactyl shadows across the eight lanes of ash-black asphalt.

Faith heard them come, spied their disgusting shapes in her side mirrors as they spread into a kite-formation and closed. And she did not waver.

The girl behind her did, though.

"Holy crap!" Claudia nearly screeched as she peered back over her shoulder. She tightened her grip around Faith's narrow waist and fought not to shudder, "They're coming Faith, what are we gonna do?"

"What we were born to do." she snarled and bent lower over the handlebars. She twisted the throttle and they jetted forward, the engine roaring between their thighs, "We're gonna SLAY!"

Even though this only her second time on a motorcycle, Faith was a natural on the Harley. During the trip toward Madison Square she had taken every shortcut she could find, no matter how twisting or narrow. She had leaned comfortably into all the corners, always ready for any pedestrian that might suddenly lurch into view, yet willing to take calculated risks for the sheer exhilaration of it. But now playtime was over and these airborne ghouls were putting themselves between her and getting to Hope before Rayne fed her to whatever monster his chaos-warped mind was about to dredge up from who knows what hell dimension.

_That's their first and last mistake..._

She zigged into an opening in the night traffic and zagged into the narrow gap separating the center lanes, then twisted the right grip all the way. The Harley's powerful engine was fed maximum throttle and it surged ahead, reaching eighty in three seconds. Claudia screamed and buried her face in Faith's hair. The Slayer grinned and looked to the mirror again.

"Duck!" and she pressed low, Claudia instantly following suit. The lead vamp swooped down, it's claws raking over them by inches, then it was past and rocketing up the middle gap ahead.

He began to rise but Faith was ready. She let go with on hand, seized the M-79 from it's cradle amongst the cables, aimed and clicked off a grenade.

_Ka-CHUNK!_ The blooper lurched in her grip and it's muzzle blazed yellow, ejecting a shell at 75 meters per second. It screamed down the lane and struck the winged vamp just as it was beginning to swoop back upwards. It detonated into a tangerine fireball five meters in diameter and a moment later the Harley flashed through it, Faith whooping all the way.

Then they were past and Claudia was raising her head in awe, "Did...did you just do what I _think_ you do? I mean did?"

"You bet your ASS!" and Faith opened the launcher and up-ended it, dumping the used copper casing. She let go of the handlebars with her other hand just for a second and dug out a second shell, jammed it in then snapped the breech closed with a flick of her wrist. She handed it over her shoulder to Claudia then grasped the grips two-handed again.

The younger Slayer gaped at the shotgun-shaped weapon she now held. She dug at Faith's stomach with her other hand and looked at the back of her head, "Are you nuts? I don't know what to do with this!"

"Neither did I twenty minutes ago. But you're a Slayer like me, we just know weapons, it's in our blood." she whipped them back into the right-hand lane and zigged past the rear bumper of a yellow cab, then bent to the left and dropped them into a new free section. The technicolor lights of Broadway slurred by at Eighty mph on either side, the wind in their faces was awesome.

"Now, remember, you've only got one shot with that thing, so make it count."

"Um, okay." and Claudia used her teeth to flip up the sight situated half way down the barrel.

Faith heard the metallic snick with her sharp ears and scowled as she adjusted the bike's shifter, "NO! No sights! No targeting aids!"

"Wha-What?"

"You heard me, kid! You're a _Slayer_, will ya just listen to me? Or do ya got corn husks stuffed between those oversized Indiana ears of yers instead of brains?"

"Hey! Watch the pokes at my home state!"

"Then you stop being a damn moron and DO WHAT I TELL YOU! Aim clean!"

"Fine!" and Claudia tongued the metal rectangle back into it's brace, "Are you happy now?"

"Ecstatic. Vamp on the right."

"What?" and Claudia wrenched around in time to see a flapping shape barnstorm sideways through the narrow gap between a rig and it's trailer, then it righted and screeched supersonic at them. She threw up her arm and yanked the trigger. The launcher jerked and the side of the trailer exploded.

And the vamp she'd missed by inches kept on coming.

"Sonofa-_hold on!_" Faith wrenched them to the left, went into a radical lean and brodied around the rear of a Volkswagen. The Hybrid screamed down at them, missed them by an inch and smashed through the passenger-side window of the Jetta. As the two women on the bike slid sideways and away, threatening to go down all the way, the car spun out of control and rammed into the side of a tow truck, bowling the larger vehicle into the next lane. It slammed into a corvette and everything went crazy as the cars piled up and new cars rammed into the radically growing heap over-and-over!

Faith pulled _hard_ on the handlebars, nearly bending them with her fantastic strength, and managed to gain enough height to drive her boot down into the asphalt. Immediately they righted and the motorcycle fishtailed around in a whir that made Claudia's head spin, then they clanked to a stop facing backwards, the bike's frame vibrating dangerously beneath them.

The pile of cars exploded into a brimstone-driven thunderclap and metal shrapnel whizzed in all directions. Faith ducked her head fast to the right and a piece buzzed past her ear and buried itself in the left lense of Claudia's goggles. She shrieked and yanked them off, tossed them away. She looked back to the jagged burning carnage and felt like she was going to vomit.

"Did...did I do...did I do _that_..."

"No." Faith replied, her voice cool and commanding, then she looked skyward to the two remaining Hybrids looping and winging above the rising black mushroom cloud.

"_They_ did it. All you did was miss one. So _don't_ ever miss again. You hear me!"

"Yes!" Claudia nodded so hard her neck cracked.

Faith looked round at her, her eyes and oval face reflecting the fire of the blaze, casting her in a satanic light that the young Slayer would not forget as long as she lived.

"When we miss, when a Slayer misses, people _die_. This is the last lesson I'm going to teach you, do you understand? Do you?"

"Yes." Claudia replied solemnly.

"Good." said Faith, "Now get off the bike and I'll finish it."

"Okay." Claudia swung her leg over and stepped gingerly onto the pavement. Faith took back the launcher and slung it over her shoulder.

"You wanted to be a Slayer and that's the final test. When you see all the horror that this world is really filled with and you _still _want to use the powers you've been granted to fight them, then that means you're ready." _ Jeez, I sound like Buffy, but you know what? Maybe I finally get what she was tryin to do..._

She gave the younger girl a rare smile of encouragement, "In the old days you never had another Slayer to tell you what's-what, so you're lucky."

"I know..." Claudia replied hoarsely.

"This world is a scary place and the worst thing somebody has to do is face it alone. But sometimes, kid, thats just the way it goes. Do you understand?"

She nodded.

"Good." and Faith grinned for a second, then drew her katanna and handed it over, "Great. 'Cause now you're going to have to do just that."

"I-I am?"

She nodded, "You are. I can't stay here any longer, I have to get to my sister and stop Rayne, too much is at stake. But those flying vamps need to be dusted right now, and I need you to distract them long enough so I can get away. Can you?"

"I can. Good-bye, Faith."

"Bye, Claude. Give'em hell." she turned away from her and did not look back. Faith flipped the choke and slammed the bike into gear. It lurched forward with a roar and she hurtled away, leaving the young teen behind. She vanished into the distance.

Claudia turned back and charged forward, lept onto the hood of a pick-up and climbed onto the roof, ignoring the driver's yells of protests. She looked to the night sky and waved the katanna madly over her head, "HEY!" she screamed in challenge at the top of her lungs, "HEY, you fang-toothed sonsabitches! Come and GET ME!"

They had already begun to loop off in Faith's direction, but now they spun back, the both of them, and they screeched at the top of their lungs as they plunged toward the diminutive sixteen year old. Every windshield and shop window for three blocks shattered under the Hybrid's ultrasonic barrage and they flung back their wings and spiraled down at a hundred miles an hour toward the truck.

And the Slayer stood her ground and let them come...

**End of Part VI...**


	39. Chapter X: Part VII

_Back at the factory front covering the Initiative Complex..._

Despite the boldness of Xander's opening assault on the Oranak ambush, the reprisal had been fast and furious, causing him and Ariel to retreat back into the mock facility.

And of course, the six night-wolves had followed, howling for their blood all the way. Gone were the yellow eyes, the order of the night was shinning red that mesmerized anyone foolish enough to look straight into their erthyristic depths.

Xander wasn't looking into their eyes though, he was too busy trying to blow them apart.

"Yah!" Xander shouted as he ducked under a leaping-charge and snapping jaws flashed over his head and crashed to the cement floor five meters behind him. He wanted to spin around and target the thing before it could recover but two more were coming for him now, on either side.

_Jeez, get famous and everybody wants a piece of you!_ he whirled to the left, _Ka-BAM!_, spun back jacking another shell into the chamber, _BAM!_, and fired it off. _Oh wait, right, I'm not famous. _ He straightened up as both wolves had dodged his blasts causing them to survive but also to miss him completely with their own charges. Twin angry howls called for him as he spun away. _That's my cue to book!_ He grabbed a handful of shells from his pocket and took off at a run for the other end of the empty factory, feeding them in as he raced.

Twenty meters away three wolves triangle'd in, snarling dangerously, heads down and muzzles quivering, as they closed on Ariel. Her raised fists sparked with pink scintillation and her face twisted in challenge. The vamped-wolves at last overcame their reluctance and charged forward as one unit, jaws splitting wide for her lithe limbs. "Bring it ON!" snarled Ariel and let loose.

For the Succubus, time slowed to a Matrix-like crawl.

She palmed a blast towards the one on her right, turned in blurring slow-motion and drove an uppercut for the one leaping for her left side. The sphere of spinning incarnadine sizzled down and struck the first night-wolf, shocking it backwards in a hale of frazzling energy which vaporized it. The second beast was an inch from her face when her punch caught it under the splayed muzzle and _flashed! _ Pyrotechnics burst beneath it's skull, it was rammed upwards, it's head detonating as it went, and then the rest of it dusted into nothing.

Ariel had tried for a kick to deal with the third wolf torpedoing in straight for her. Too bad it missed completely, 'cause that would of been a sweet three-way kill. Oh well.

Time returned to it's normal flow and the wolf rammed into her chest, bowling her down. They slammed into the concrete floor _hard_ and rolled over-and-over as one entity, claws and jaws raking and slashing. Ariel screamed!

Across the factory floor Xander hurtled to a stop and spun back around, his face aghast, "ARI!" he shouted but could make out nothing amongst the shadows of the opposite side.

"Dammit! Babe, hang-on, I'm COMING!" he took off at a run, and that's when the sixth wolf, who had been stalking him the whole time, seized the moment and sprang from the shade. It swarmed forward, bolting for his left side, knowing it was a blind-spot for the one-eyed man, and Xander never saw it coming.

Suddenly jaws were clamped around his left arm and he yelled in pain, was wrenched around to face the slavering beast, it's splayed paws scrambled up him and now it was on it's hind legs, still twisting his arm hard.

"Let go! Damn you! LET GO!" he could still hear Ariel screaming and it drove him MAD. He swung back with the shotgun, then lashed it's muzzle forward like a stake and _drove_ it _into_ the wolf's chest, FIRED!

Red eyes went very wide.

_Ker-POW!_ Xander was blasted backwards by the combined force of the discharge and explosive dusting. The gun flew from his fingers and clattered away, he landed on his ass and slid, flipped to his side and rolled, rammed into the corrugated wall, _stopped_. He didn't move...

Ten meters away, Ariel was in hell.

Flashing red eyes, gnashing canines, tearing claws, they were everywhere and panic filled her, flooding her terrified mind and clouded her actions. _Help me! Xander please!_ She pushed a leg away, jammed her knees against the wolf's scooped chest, yanked her neck to the side and barely missed a grab for her face. She screamed again as a back foot raked down her left leg, shredding through the denim and tearing up her flesh. _ImgonnadieXanderPLEASE_-Xander is not going to help you.

_Wha_-_What?_

The voice spoke internally, echoing through her panic as she instinctively threw up her hands and caught the sides of the wolf's head and forced it's snapping muzzle back with all her half-demon strength.

Xander is fighting for his own life now, tsk'd the arrogant voice, and you know it! He doesn't have time to come rescue you like a princess in a castle.

_But_-

But NO! You stupid twit of a girl, are you so pathetic that you can't take care of yourself?

And Ariel realized it was her mother's voice she heard. It wasn't real, it was just her mind's way of motivating her.

For as long as she could remember her mother's voice had tormented her from within, judging her endlessly and causing her to second-guess every impulse. Admonishing her when she was forced to give in and Siphon sexual energy off of some innocent guy, just so she could live. But this was the first time she ever realized that the tormenting voice also could be a motivator.

_You're right-I'm right, Xander is not coming, he busy defending himself. So I have to do this myself..._

And the knee that was keeping the back legs from gutting her slashed up and jammed into the wolf's gut. _I gotta stop fighting like a girl and_ start _fighting like a demon!_ and the palms gripping either side of the wolf's thrashing head flashed brightly, the beast jerked and it's eyes flew wide. Ariel managed to bend her knees tight to her chest and her feet slid level with the thing's underside. Her hands let go and slipped under the jaw.

She grinned savagely, "My what big teeth you have!" and then she let loose with EVERYTHING!

Four simultaneous blasts shot from the ends of her limbs and the wolf was _launched!_ In an ignescent detonation that lit-up the entire factory floor, the beast screamed upwards like the space shuttle and smashed _through_ the sheet metal roof. It kept on going, a Roman candle in the shape of Wile E. Coyote, and flew skyward to a height of nearly a kilometer. Then it exploded into a rose-colored flameball that spun away into the shrieking wind.

The remaining two night-wolves had been creeping in towards the prone Xander, but now their muzzles rotated fast to see Ariel striding towards them out of the still pink-sparking shadows.

"Bad dogs!" she snapped and raised her fists, "Get!" They looked at each other then bolted fast, scampered off and shot out the exit and were gone.

"That's good." Ariel exhaled in relief, "Because I'm all out of power now." a shudder ran through her and she sunk to her knees beside the unmoving body of Xander. She hung her head and all she wanted to do was slump down and sleep, curled up beside him. But she couldn't, there was still so much to do. Life was so unfair.

"Xander, wake-up." she raised her head and nudged him in the side.

"Uhhh...five more minutes..."

"Don't make me wet-willy you."

He coughed and rolled over, sat up painfully. He cradled his perforated arm and blinked at her through the twilight, "Wha..?" he looked around fast but no wolves loomed out in the shadows. He looked back at her, forced a grin, "Did we...did we win?"

"Uh-huh." she nodded, "Bob Barker gave us the car and everything. Now we get to spin the big wheel."

"Cool, I'm a master of the Showcase bid. That trip to Tahiti is _ours_."

She shrugged, "I prefer Plinko. Give me cold-hard-cash over some washer-dryer that I'll never be able to afford the taxes on."

"Ariel?"

"Yes, Xander?"

"Why are we talking about 'The Price is Right'?"

"A better question is how come we aren't both dead. Six night-wolves, remember?"

"I'm trying not to."

She bent her forehead to his chest, "Oh, Xander, I feel awful, so drained. I _so_ don't want to mack on some jock just to recharge. Just kill me, 'kay?"

"Never." and he delicately caught her chin and raised her face, "Try recharging on _my_ d-cells, babe."

She blinked in sudden panic, "N-No! I can't-"

"Yes. You can. This world is filled with so many maybes and what ifs, but there's one thing I damn-well know for certain, and thats that you, Ariel, would never, _ever_ hurt me."

"Never." she whispered, "I...I love you..."

He smiled, "And that's how I know." then he kissed her, long and passionately, gathered her up in his arms and pressed her to him. She held back, but only for a moment, then clung to his mighty embrace and swooned into him. And her hands splayed against his muscled back, the palms sinking into the soft leather of his jacket. Alabaster light, pure as the driven snow, poured forth from him and into her, crackling with strands of creamy lightning out of his body and Siphoned into hers, in a seemingly endless stream.

Ariel's mouth hung open and her back arched. Her head lulled away from his, but their lips were still joined by a conduit of pure quicksilver. Xander shuddered and gasped, his eye rolling back in ecstasy, "Ohhhh yeahhhh..."

"Uhhhhh, _yes_..." Ariel rolled off of him and dropped shuddering to the floor, as he slumped over onto his back. Sparks continued to shoot back-and-forth between them as they lay like that. They didn't move for the longest time.

Then, with a shuddering ratchet, the factory's retractable roof slid open and a sleek black military helicopter rotored down in a rush of air. Ariel and Xander sat up, both blinking hazily, and the blonde gawked as the landing gear extended and the copter settled in to land. Her eyes narrowed as she recognized the cracked and perforated cockpit window.

"What? That's the one _we_ stole."

"Yep." Xander replied as he got to unsteady feet and fought not to pitch over.

He jogged over to where Claudia had dropped her backpack, gathered it up then went looking for the shotgun. He pointed to the multiscanner on his belt as he searched the shadows, "When I saw the Oranak ambush I activated the autopilot program. The scanner has a homing beacon, brought it right here. Good thing we left the chopper on that roof."

"What! It flew here all the way on it's own? No program is _that_ perfect. You took an incredible chance, Xander, it could have crashed."

Xander snatched up the Winchester then headed for the beckoning copter. He reached it and pulled open the side-door, "This night is all about taking chances. This is war, or haven't you noticed. Got to throw caution to the wind, Ari."

"Yeah...sure, but-"

"You coming or what?" and he climbed inside.

She scowled then looked to her hands which were now crawling with lines of white energy. Oh _yeah_, she was dying to try the new power source out.

"You're still in big trouble, Xander! But right, lets go!"

Five seconds later the chopper rose, rotored up out of the factory, and set off across the city, afterburners glowing like the sun...

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Faith roared down Broadway past 6th Avenue, the Harley vibrating like a tiger between her clenched knees, and with a fast lean she merged south onto 34th Street, heading deep into uptown. Overhead, the yellow-white streetlamps intermittently streaked across the chrome of the rocketing cycle and reflected over her flying raven hair like the tracks of tracer rounds. She swung a left onto 7th and in the distance the rising turrets of Madison Square Gardens loomed in her vision.

_Here goes_, she gritted her teeth and poured on the speed.

Blue-and-red flashing lights strobed into being up ahead as she crested a rise in the street. Her eyes widened at the sight of a line of NYPD cars and vans hemming in the road. There was no gap and on either side a crowd of uniformed officers milled, shotguns and radios out, their attention locked on the entertainment center beyond.

_Guess the party started without me,_ she brooded, _nobody invites me to anything, I always havta crash, jeez..._

She made up her mind and decided chancing a wheelie over the hood of the center prowler to get through. It was her only option because she wasn't slowing down, no friggin way. That would lead to questions she didn't want to answer, especially since there was a grenade launcher stuck between her handlebars.

_Yeah, that wouldn't go over well, I don't think, so_-her eyes flicked to the M-79 and another idea occurred to her. An insane one but it was still better then playing Fonzie. She hoped...

Plus she was out of time and it was now or never.

She pushed for more speed but the throttle would not turn any farther. The Harley's rpm gauge was nearly redline. The heavy cycle was going a hundred and twenty miles an hour, blasting through pockets of water on the road and throwing up rooster tails of spray. Faith honed in on the car in the center and shouted to the cops, "YO! FIRE-IN-THE-HOLE!"

They spun around and gaped, stumbled back in shock as she drew the launcher and leveled it over the handlebars, fired, _WHOOSH!_

The grenade slammed into the underside of the middle cruiser and detonated, erupting the gas tank within. The police car lifted off, vectoring upwards on a rectangle of yellow flame. The concussion blew Faith's leather jacket open and flying shrapnel whizzed all around her but she kept on going. As the car reached it's maximum height she zoomed beneath it, the firewall broiling all around her for the longest moment of her life, then she was _through_, and the double thunderclap faded to be replaced with the metallic _CRASH!_ of the wrecked vehicle slamming back down onto the pavement.

The Officers watched her vanish round the side of the Gardens and it didn't occur to even one of them to raise a gun to stop her. They all just stood in awe, as the shell of their former cruiser burned and crackled.

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Three Initiative soldiers stood guard over the cowering patrons of the Play By Play sports bar, located on the ground floor of MSG. Their attentions were on the frosted double-doors leading back toward the Arena, and on the face-down bar patrons, not on the line of velvet-curtained floor-to ceiling windows lining the left side of the curving pub.

Too bad.

Outside, Faith gunned toward a loading dock at a skewed angle, her eyes locked on the wide wall of glass just to it's right. _Wish I had that Duke Boys horn_, then she cut the bike suddenly hard to the side, leaving the road and hitting the rising embarkment ramp. The Harley vaulted into the air, flying over the low fence bordering the building's edge. The big bike was the least aerodynamic vehicle in history, but the Slayer made rapid shifts in her position relative to the gravity vectors to force it to stay upright as the seven-hundred pound machine sailed out into space and crashed through the second pane of glass.

"YEAH!" she shouted as she blasted through, crystal shards spinning away from the front fender in all directions. People screamed and rolled away, _what the_-_why are all these people on the floor? DAMN! _But there was nothing she could do.

The bike hit hard, bottoming out, an explosion of sparks shooting out from under the frame as it tore up the carpet and scraped along the cement floor below. Only Faith's ultra-fast reflexes kept it from sliding out or running over anybody. She fought for control, but there was too many factors for her to control so she baled out.

She saw three black-uniforms by the bar and whipped the handlebars towards them, let go and grabbed the launcher, kicked off into a wicked backflip. The shocked soldiers opened up wildly with their machine-guns as she spun backwards through the air, then the Harley crashed into them and the bar, caving it in and sending the operatives flying in all directions. It kept on going and smashed through the wall in a fury of whizzing bottle glass and flying wreckage.

Faith landed in a crouch and watched the bike vanish into a jagged channel of drywall, then she straightened up and looked about her at the people just now raising their heads.

"I believe the proper reaction is for you guys to run for your lives." and she cracked the launchers breech and shoved in a new grenade from her bandolier.

A hundred people never moved so fast.

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Ethan Rayne was staring upwards vacantly through the Arena's open dome, watching the dots of his master and enemy dwindle to nothing into the night sky, when the Section 19 exit door, and half the wall around it, erupted outwards in a spinning cloud of flame.

Before the debris had even begun to fall, Faith strode the gaping maw, a terror in black leather, and her fiery gaze swiveled down to the basketball court and triangulated on Rayne as he gawked up at her in shock.

"Knock-KNOCK!" she up-ended the launcher, dropping the empty, then jammed in a new shell and whipped it shut, straight-armed it down at him, "Anybody HOME?" KA-_SHOOM!_ the court erupted into hellfire! She grinned like a maniac, "Guess there ain't."

"Faith!" shouted Hope from the other side of the Arena and she looked up sharply.

"Don't move!" Faith took off down the steps.

"Yo, I would if I could!" her straightjacketed younger sister replied angrily and she with a burst of strength she at last managed to pull herself from the strong embrace of the two beefy soldiers holding her down on her knees. They didn't seem to notice, their heads were still bowed as Rayne had mentally commanded, like every other soldier in the arena. The girl didn't get far though, as her thrust away from them now only served to send her tumbling into a crowd of frozen ticketholders. They all went down and she struggled to get up as they fell across her, but without arms it was going to be slow going, to say the least.

"I said don't move!" snapped Faith, as she reached ground level and sprinted through the smoking hell she'd made. "I'm coming!" she added, but as she passed the thickest fog, the cloaked figure of Ethan Rayne lept free of the greasy smoke and threw up his hand, "_EXPELIRUS_!"

A sphere of red-gold power lashed out for her head, Faith ducked crazily, bending over backwards, and it sizzled across her chest, ignighting her jacket, then it finished ten meters away by vaporizing the Comet's point-guard.

Faith straightened up, shucking the launcher and bandolier fast, then tore off the smoldering leather jacket, tossed it free. She whirled on Rayne, eyes flashing madly, "You sonofabitch, I'm gonna beat you to within an inch of your life and then _keep going_!"

"You mean you're going to _try_." and he threw out his arms, "_Decursio Valescere Bellatrix_!" he shouted and his cloak blasted into nothing, as did the burgundy shirt he wore beneath it.

Faith stared at the narrow body beneath and laughed, "What, you gonna challenge me to 'fisticuffs'?" she spoke the last word in a Cockney mockery.

"Something like that..." he grinned, and then Faith's eyes bugged as muscles flared into existence all over Rayne's torso. They coiled on his arms like snakes and his stomach six-packed into a hard-rubber like sheen. His neck doubled in width and the legs of his trousers bulged dangerously. Within less then two seconds he was a carved Adonis, brimming with Schwarzeneggerian-level brawn and beyond.

"You like?" he asked.

"No."

"Didn't think you would." and he swung a wicked punch into her gut, sending her flying backwards down the length of the smoking court. She hit the basket post with a _crunch_, bending it over, then fell to her knees beside it gagging.

She looked up raggedly as Ethan laughed heartily then stalked toward her, gleaming like a Trojan warrior. _It's never easy, not even for one second,_ her psyche muttered, _isn't life a bitch..._

**End Part VII...**


	40. Chapter X: Part VIII

_Flying across NYC..._

The customized Initiative helicopter was homing in on Madison Square Gardens when Ariel caught Xander's shoulder and pointed to the west, "What...what is _that_?"

He swung them around and brought up a link to the assault copter's external cameras. He zoomed the display forward then focused, revealing Time's Square. And what was happening within it's towering boarders.

"Sweet Mary Mother of God..." Xander breathed and Ariel's mouth fell open.

A dragon, easily thirty feet long, flapped it's monstrous wings twenty feet above the street, as a huge bearded man in a toga soared up to face it, swinging a massive fist around to deck it squarely in the jaw. The drake's jagged muzzle snapped back and it flew to the side, crashed into a strobing Kodak billboard. Sparks and electricity zagged outwards and debris hurtled down into the Square, where a mob of desperate screaming people ran in all directions.

"Guh..." moaned Xander as he fought to comprehend what he was seeing. Ariel recovered first and gripped his bicep, "Go!"

"What? But the Gardens, Hope-"

"Just GO!"

"Okay-okay!" and he sent the chopper flying forward across the cityscape, the cultural center of New York expanding fast in their vision. Within seconds there was no need to look at the dashboard, Time's Square was now fully laid out before them. And in it the titanic battle waged like something out of Greek mythology.

"So _that's _what Rayne wanted to unleash?" Xander swung them down toward the Square, "A dragon? Well, he loves chaos and thats pretty chaotic, I'll give him that."

But Ariel scowled, "No, that's not it. Look at the dragon's back. Don't you see it?"

"Just the one eye remember, so don't harp on me." he leaned forward over the control sticks and narrowed his gaze. Then it widened, "Holy crap! A Dark Glyph? That's one of the Oranaks!"

"Not just any Oranak...that's my Mother." Ariel declared.

Xander tore his gaze from the battling prometheans and gawked at her, "What? But I thought the Glyphs only worked on vampires."

"That's right, they do. So..."

"Your moms a vamp now? Wow..."

"Hey, it's not much of a change, let me tell ya. That bitch never had a soul to begin with, in my opinion."

Xander looked back as he brought them into hover a hundred meters away. They watched Post break free of the sign and spring forward with a roar, blasting the huge bearded man in the chest with a plume of scarlet flame. It propelled him backwards to crash into the side of skyscraper, she winged after him and piledrived into him as he tried to climb free. The building shook and a cloud of debris hailed outwards, obscuring them for a moment. The sounds of terrific fighting continued.

"So then Ethan summoned that other guy? The big one who looks like Zeus." he swallowed hard, "Wait, he isn't actually Zeus, is he? Holy..."

"It's Janus." Ariel said simply.

"Huh? Who?"

"He had two faces, didn't you see? The second is on the back of his head. Janus, Roman god of Beginnings and Endings."

"How do you know?"

"Myths." Ariel scowled, "Mother was obsessed with them, even when I was a kid. She told me all of them over-and-over, plus lots of obscure details that no academic ever knew. Like that the general consensus that Janus was a benevolent god was wrong, that he really was utterly two-faced."

"Heh, that makes sense."

"Not only that, but he was also the Norse god Loki, and a more vindictive and malevolent demon king you'll never meet."

The office building shuddered and vibrated, half it's windows shattered outwards under a backlash of crimson flame. Xander brought up the copter's thermal sensors and tried to get an image from the inside. Then he frowned and looked at Ariel, "Wait, I remember Giles telling me something about Ethan. The first time he was in Sunnydale he cast this spell over Halloween, it's where I got all my military know-how. And Giles said to break the glamour he had to destroy a two-faced bust which contained the enchantment."

"Janus." nodded Ariel, "He was a terror two thousand years ago until he was banished by the rest of his kind for being too chaotic even for _their_ tastes. Oh, and Mom said he was also known by the name Geminus. And _Myhnegon_."

Xander did a double-take, "_Myhnegon_? Is _that_ what you said?"

She nodded, "Yep. _Myhnegon_."

_This is all starting to make a weird circular sort of sense_, Xander realized, _at least, I think it is..._

He looked back out the cracked canopy as the building thundered one last time then it's left wall exploded outwards in a shower of cement and masonry, carrying ten foot-tall Janus with it. He deflected off the corner of another scraper and plunged backwards for the Square far below, his red toga fluttering all around his Herculenean body. But he threw out his arms and powered to stop.

His twin faces glared with loathing at the pair of slitted yellow eyes peering down at him from inside the ravaged building.

"SLAVE!" his voice reached even Xander's helicopter, "COME TO ME! YOUR TIME OF DEFIANCE IS AT AN END! I WILL KILL YOU NOW! THEN THIS PITIFUL WORLD WILL AT LAST BE _MINE_!"

With a demonic roar that shattered neon signs all around the Square, the dragon shouldered it's way out of the hulking gap and sprang free of the decimated building. It's huge wings unfurled and it soared upwards like a harrier jet, cleared the Square, then looped back round and nosed down towards the god who awaited her, fists dazzling with golden power. Post threw open her maw and let loose with a plume of flame, Janus threw up his hands and fired off a barrage of fireballs. The sky lit-up like a fireworks display that sent thunder peeling across Manhattan, as the jade dragon swooped back-and-forth, dodging the Roman god's blasts. Then she righted and threw out her huge talons, slammed into him and gripped his torso tightly, kept on going.

"Oh my god!" Ariel gasped as the monstrous beings plummeted down towards the Square, "They're going to-"

_BOOOOOOOOM!_

Pavement split and cars were catapulted twenty feet into the air. The streets shockwaved away from them like liquid and the center of the Square caved in a fury of flying rock and erupting water mains! People flew in every direction and died horrible deaths, three buildings collapsed and fell over into the Square, fire erupted on every side.

The back-blast struck the chopper full-on and Ariel screamed as it spun backwards and out of control. Xander hung onto the sticks madly, fighting for superiority as they autorotored down toward the burning Square.

"We're not going to MAKE IT!" Xander yelled and

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

Faith had imagined this conflict going several different ways during the chaotic Harley trip to the Gardens, but none of them were anything like this.

Punches blurred, wrists and arms bashed and deflected off fists, legs spun in fast arcs, they circled each other like prize fighters on the charred and smoldering basketball court, both searching for an opening to deliver that defining finishing move. But so far it eluded both of them. The major difference between the two fighters, beside Faith's firm belief that Rayne was a dickweed and she wasn't, was that Ethan seemed to be enjoying the duel much more then he should be.

"Wouldja _stop_ laughin like a friggin moron!"

"But this is so hilarious!" and he actually cackled, then deflected her right trust and went for a face strike.

Faith weaved round it and lashed forward with a middle-jab, but he answered with a forearm block, flipped the movement into an uppercut. She lunged back out of the way and bent into a roundhouse kick, "What exactly about this is hilarious to you?" _wham-wham-wham! _she slammed her heel over-and-over into his torso, "All the Slayers you've killed?"

But Rayne bore the brutal blows then caught her ankle and twisted her into a sidespin, she rotated in midair and landed in a knee crouch, then somersaulted into him and hand sprang up, delivering two more wicked kicks: one to his chest, the other to his neck. _Crunch-Crack! _Ethan stumbled back shaking his head, Faith arched into a even landing and charged him, swinging fast. He stood his ground though and deflected her blows one-after-another.

She kneed him in the groin, he winced and lurched back a step. She grinned past bloody lips, "Consider _that_ payback for the first girl."

"First girl?" he sneered, "Hah! I did you a favor, Slayer. Eliminated some of the competition-" she cut him off with a brutal strongarm to the jaw, but when she swung back he just stood there grinning. Faith scowled, he wasn't even bruised. _Stupid magic spells, I'm getting really sick of his tricks!_

He drove a punch into her side that cracked a rib, she gasped in pain. He leered into her anguished face, "Didn't you hear me, girl? I said I did you a favor by eliminating some of the false Chosen. Now your legacy is made purer for my efforts."

Her eyes went ferocious, her fists flailed back at him. Wham-slap-_thud!_ "Favor? What are you, Rayne, deranged?"

He parried her blows then caught her by the wrists and wrenched her forward and up against him, rasped into her face, "Not at _all_, my girl. If anything you are the insane one, and I wouldn't be scolding others on the issue of murder, Faith." he grinned wickedly as she winced and fought to break his hold, "That's right, I know _all _about you." he began to bend her over backwards, crushing her with his expanding muscles, "You're quite the spitfire, and the dirty talk of the town in Watcher circles."

She managed to get a knee between them and kicked him off of her. Freed, she lurched back and straightened up, eyes flashing, "There are no more Watchers, they all got curly fried a year ago. And anyway, I did my time."

"You killed a man." he laughed, "And then did, what, two years?" they were circling each other again.

"Three."

"That's nothing! You were charged with a holy duty to protect mankind and then you used your abilities to _murder_ one of us. And you think three bloody years is adequate?"

"Yeah. I do. Oh, and I killed more then just one person, just so ya know." and she lunged for him, he tried to dodge but she compensated and tackled him around the middle, drove him back across the court and rammed him into the home-team basket.

It cracked free with a rattling _clang!_ and they were rolling over-and-over, arms flailing into each other. Ethan managed to strike her across the jaw with a stunning hit and her head deflected off the floor. She went limp and he caught her up and rose to stand, held her above him like she was nothing.

"Three years! I played a bit of a joke on Ripper, no harm no foul, and I get put away _illegally_ with no trial for_ two years_!" he spun about, eyes so mad they were actually blazing with red-gold fire, "And the Initiative ran tests on me, poked and prodded like I was some _thing_ they owned! And they never were going to let me go, I could tell! Three years and you're a mass murderer? You know _nothing_!"

And he threw her with all his strength.

She hurtled across the Arena and crashed into a dense pocket of frozen people. Chairs shattered under the impact and the section half-collapsed, the bodies and debris rolling over her, their faces still unmoving, some of them grinning.

Ethan stalked across the court and the muscle-man physique evaporated off him like it had never been there. He reached the other end and raised fists crackling with eldritch power, "Enough games, it was fun to play at being a Slayer like you, but now it's time for you to die." he threw his hands apart and the bodies parted from each other in a rush, revealing the coughing form of Faith, huddled in the remains of the section.

He raised his hands and generated twin spheres of burning energy, just like his master Janus liked to manifest, "I've never personally killed anybody, so I'm looking at this as a learning experience. You know, allowing me to gain an understanding about what it's like to be you, Faith."

She raised a blood-smeared face and tried to get up, "You...will never understand...what it's like...to be _me_." she spat out scarlet phlegm, it landed on his shoes, "But I know...know what it's like to...to be _you_, Rayne."

He hesitated for a moment, the twin balls of broiling death strobing across his angled features, "Oh really? You do? And what, pray tell, do you mean by _that_?"

"Simple." she replied, her lips turning into a triumphant sneer, "I used to be _way_ easy to distract too."

"Distract?" he didn't understand. Then the straight-jacketed Hope, who was behind him now, bent double and kicked him with all her strength in the back of his left knee. _CRRRACK!_

Ethan screamed in agony and dropped to his knees, screamed again as the pain doubled with the added pressure and fell on his back. Faith clawed free of the destroyed section and dashed forward as fast as she could, and caught hold of Ethan's flapping arms by the wrists. She started pushing his hands together and he looked up at her in tormented horror, "NO! DON'T!"

She looked to her younger sister, "Run!" and without a word the girl turned away and hustled off. Faith looked back down at Rayne, "How many did you kill?" she demanded, pausing for a second. The two spheres of energy spun and crackled on his palms.

"What? I don't know! The Initiative, they-"

"NO! You DID! How many!"

"Janus! He made me do it! Please, you have to understand-"

"HOW MANY!"

"Nineteen! NINETEEN! I killed NINETEEN Slayers! _Please!_ Don't-" Faith slammed his palms together.

There was a terrific flash and everything seemed to explode at once.

Faith was flying backwards, she rotated in the shockwave and flung herself around, saw a line of seats rushing toward her, or was it the other way around? She tucked her head down and curled into a ball, and a half-second later she _hit_, and-and everything went dark...

**End of Part VIII...**


	41. Chapter X: Part IX

_Time's Square..._

The side-door slid back, then fell off it's rails. A pair of bloody hands emerged and levered their body up. Teeth gritting, Xander crawled out then turned back and threw down an arm, caught hold of Ariel and levered her up and out. Together they slid down the side of the crashed helicopter and landed in the pitted and burning urban wasteland that had formerly been Time's Square.

Xander glanced back over his shoulder at the downed copter. It was lying on it's side, the rotors bent and hanging askew. Grey smoke spiraled up from four different points and the afterburners were sizzling loudly. He frowned sadly at the downed helicopter, "So much for flying free to the Virgin Islands."

"My god, Bones." quoted Ariel solemnly, "What have I done?"

Xander looked at her, "What you had to do. What you always do: turn death into a fighting chance to live."

She giggled and wiped the black smudge from his cheek, straightened his eyepatch.

He grinned, "Stop quoting 'Search For Spock', you'll get me all misty-eyed."

"I was trying to make a point. No regrets, okay?"

He nodded, brushed a stray strand of hair from her eyes, hooked it over her ear, "Gotcha. High spirits from her on in." then he looked across the burning Square to the massive crater in the center, "So...do you think either of them are still alive down there?"

She handed him Claudia's heavy backpack, "I dunno, but we've got to find out. Janus is a god, remember? They tend to be pretty resilient." they set off for the smoking rim.

Xander scowled, "Resilient? That's putting it mildly."

"Oh? You've tangled with gods before, have you?" her tone was sarcastic, but Xander surprised her by nodding. Her hazel eyes narrowed, "You're kidding me, right?"

"Nope. Ask me again sometime."

"I don't think I want to."

"Smart girl, that's why I love you."

"So you've ruined another man, I see." spoke a third and very familiar voice. They halted fast, looked forward.

Gwendolyn Post stood on the edge of the crater, staring them down with slitted yellow eyes.

Ariel moved fast, sliding in front of Xander and raising coruscating fists, "So you're alive. Bully for you, Mother." she looked her up-and-down, "A new look for you, though. I don't approve."

Post was still unclothed, but from the neck down her body was coated in slick emerald scales, like an oily lizard. She still had her blonde hair though, and the same facial features. At least for the moment. Her eyes flashed and she glowered down at her daughter, "_You_ don't get to approve or disapprove of _me_, child. So belligerent, such a disappointment." she shook her head in disgust.

"Disappointment? DISAPPOINTMENT? You are judging me based on something I was_ born _into! You hateful bitch!"

"How _dare_ you! I am your mother!"

"No you're not!" snapped Ariel, stalking forward, "You're just some whore who couldn't even tell she was screwing a demon instead of her own husband!"

And Gwendolyn slapped her, hard, Ariel's head snapped to the right. When she rotated it back, blood dotted her lips. But she smiled, and her eyes strobed with milky fire, "My turn now." and she slapped palms to her mothers chest and let loose. White energy exploded from them and Gwendolyn was blasted backwards across the whole of the crater, and crashed to ground far on the other side.

Ariel dug in with her heels and bent forward like an Olympic sprinter readying for the gun. Xander reached for her, concern twisting his expression, "Wait! She's not your mother anymore, Ari! She's a vampire now, she has no soul!"

She looked back at him for a second, "Are you kidding? She was _born_ to be a vampire, she's even _more_ my mother now. Hell, she's a _demon_." and she turned back and watched the distant emerald-skinned figure stagger to her feet. Her eyes narrowed and her lips peeled back, "And I _know_ how to deal with a demon! I'll bring her to you, you just keep toga-boy busy!" _PHWAM!_ energy flared from her feet and she blasted forward like a torpedo, soaring across the crater, fists strobing like beacons.

Xander knew it wasn't his fight, it was hers, and so he didn't watch. He just jumped over the lip of the crater and began to descend. But his resolve did little to stop the knots twisting his stomach. _I wish Faith was here..._

******\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_Outside the Gardens..._

Emergency vehicles were everywhere, cops rushed back-and-forth shouting, paramedics gaping at the streaming crowd of people pouring out of every exit.

Strange words reverberated from the growing crowd of thousands as the authorities fought uselessly to contain it; things about everybody being unable to move, and dragons and two-headed giants. And about a dark-haired girl who'd saved them from a muscle-bound druid.

"Must have been a gas-leak." muttered a Paramedic to an Officer as the throng surged around them, "Hallucinations."

A lone Initiative Private, his mind at last his own once more after a year of mental slavery, was scrambling at the door latch of his humvee, when a hand slapped to the back of his skull and head-rammed him into the frame. He dropped like a stone and a teenage girl stepped on his face and finished what he'd started.

Hope looked back-and-forth, but nobody seemed to even notice them. _So many people. This is a messed up night, severely..._

She heaved her older sister off her shoulder and pushed her across the leather seats to the passenger side. She chucked the grenade launcher and it's bandolier after her, then climbed into the cockpit.

She gaped, the Hummer's keys were still in the ignition, "The best-of-the-best, yeah right." A minute later she had honked her way out of the crowd and onto the street, then drove off as nonchalantly as she could muster. Hope had never driven before, but the hundred-plus hours she'd logged on Gran Turismo 3 seemed to be doing her for the moment.

All she lacked was a destination.

Faith's bruised eyelids fluttered and she moaned, "...86th Street...the subway station..."

Her sister nodded and began cycling through the Humvee's dash-mounted GPS. Good thing that last detonation half-cooked my straightjacket, '_cause this would be a bitch to drive with my knees._

The black Hummer vanished into the night-shrouded city streets...

**\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\**

_The bottom of the Time's crater..._

Janus groaned and turned over, sat up, spilling ash and dirt off his chest. He looked around dumbly with both sets of eyes and tried to remember what had just happened.

His glorious return to the plain of his birth was not going as he had intended, at least not so far. His twin mouths curled into wrathful sneers, "THE WOMAN!" he growled, "YES, THE WOMAN! SHE WILL PAY! I WILL NOT KILL HER NOW, NO."

He struggled to his feet and smoothed down his toga, "NOW I WILL SUBDUE HER AND THEN THE DEGRADATIONS WILL BEGIN. ONE-AFTER-ANOTHER I WILL RAIN THEM DOWN UPON HER ENDLESSLY, FOR A THOUSAND YEARS AND-"

"Wow, you really have some anger-management issues." spoke the voice of a mortal and the god looked back-and-forth, then up and spied him coming down the side of the crater. He was youngish and able-bodied, though he had just the one eye.

"WHO ARE YOU?"

"Alexander Harris is the name, Xander for short, and I represent New York City's immigration department."

The ten-foot promethean glowered down at him as the much smaller man reached the bottom of the crater and boldly marched toward him. Janus was still a bit out of sorts and gathering strength, he cocked his head at the bizarre mortal, "IMMIGRATION? WHAT IS YOUR MEANING?"

"What, you don't know?" Xander was aghast, "Did you think you could just transdimensionally crossover into this city and _not_ go through customs? Don't be stupid. Now, do you have anything to declare?"

"DID YOU JUST CALL ME-DECLARE? WHAT, DO YOU MEAN? DECLARATIONS OF INVASION? OF COURSE!" now he understood, the man was a diplomat for the humans, come to offer their terms of non-violent surrender, "DOES MY TEMPLE STILL EXIST? DOES IANUS GEMINUS STAND PROUD ABOVE ALL OTHERS?"

"Um...sure! Oh yeah, the tourists flock to it like it's Graceland and the King himself is tending the bar."

"THE KING?"

"Elvis."

"WHO IS THIS KING ELVIS? I WILL SLAY HIM AND TAKE HIS CROWN!"

A series of explosions sounded from high above and they looked up to see a dark-green shape of the dragon wheeling and flaming in black sky overhead. The figure of a woman darted before it, her body aglow with pearlescent energy. She weaved around fire blasts and sent quicksilver ones of her own back. Post was too large of a target to dodge and shuddered under multiple impacts, then screamed her draconic fury. Below, Janus's faces twisted in rage and he threw up his hands.

"COME TO ME! BOW BEFORE ME, SLAVE!"

"Oh crap!" Xander wheeled about and dived for cover.

The god let loose with twin beams of golden power, they lanced up and struck the dragon and Ariel dead-on, they both screamed and writhed in agony, then fell to earth.

Xander looked up from behind a half-buried Buick and his gaze went wide. He turned and took off at a run. Two seconds later the dragon crashed into the crater, crushing the car to smithereens and setting off a quake that tossed the sometimes carpenter high. He spun crazily then crashed into the side of the crater, rolled and came to a rest back at the bottom. Ariel plummeted down a second later and impacted three meters on his left.

"Ariel!" he scrambled across the blighted ground and reached her, flipped her steaming body over. Her eyelids fluttered and she looked up at him, "Wha...what happened? I...oh, it hurts..." she clutched at her ribs.

Xander stood and tore the pack from his back, stalked forward toward the god, his face a mask of fury, "Okay, thats _it_! The gloves are off, pal!"

Janus looked round from where he stood over the limp dragon-form of Post. He peered down at the mortal and grinned, "YOU ARE HIGHLY ENTERTAINING, BOY, I LIKE YOU."

"Don't call me boy. Now, it's time for you to leave. And take the drake-bitch with you."

"LEAVE? LEAVE FOR WHERE?"

"Wherever Ethan Rayne dredged you up from. Go home and never come back."

Janus laughed mightily, his huge chest heaving, "GO? _YOU _WOULD ORDER _ME_ TO LEAVE? ARE YOU MAD, BOY?"

And Xander unzipped the backpack, dug inside, "I told you, don't...call...me..._boy_." and he yanked a wide flat artifact free. It was rounded and grey with star-like points protruding about it's base, Xander raised it before him and pointed it at the two of them.

Janus didn't like the sight of it at all, he raised his massive fists, golden power spangling to life around them, "NO MORTAL WEAPON CAN DEFEAT ME, I WILL SQUASH YOU LIKE-"

"It isn't a weapon." glared Xander, "_Patefacio-Insum_!" and the _Calyx_ snapped open, unleashing tendrils of spinning amber energy. Both Janus and the dragon were instantly enveloped and then the aurora wrenched back into the magical trap, pulling them with it. Janus howled wordlessly and tried to unleash his power but it was too late, the device snapped shut with a loud _CLICK!_ and he and Post were gone.

Xander held his breath, and the world did so too.

But the _Calyx_ remained intact and didn't even vibrate. He looked down at it in wonder, "Phenomenal cosmic power, itty-bitty living space... Man, I don't believe that actually _worked_!"

"You and me both."

He looked round and saw Ariel, on her feet and trying to smooth down clothing that was half burned away. He grinned and bent for the pack, stuffed the heavy artifact back into it. He went to her and gripped her shoulders, "Are you okay?"

"Nothing a good night's sleep and ten years of psychiatric counseling won't fix."

"Ari, we did it! We won!"

She grinned and to Xander her happy smile was a sight to rival the splendor of Heaven.

"Yeah...we really did." she agreed, "Now let's get out of here before we get arrested by Homeland Security for blowing up half the city."

He couldn't agree more...

**End of Part IX...**


	42. Chapter X: Part X

Claudia never showed up at the Reserve Station.

No matter how much they searched, on foot or by hacking into the NYPD forensic database, no trace of her or the two Oranak vampires she'd been left to face were ever found. After four days Xander and Ariel sadly called off the hunt, but Faith did not. And she never would...

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_Commander Sisko rose, interrupting Jean-Luc Picard, "In the meantime, I'll do the job I've been ordered to do to the best of my ability, sir!"_

"This scene still gives me chills." muttered an enraptured Xander as he fisted a handfull of popcorn from the bowl perched on his knees.

Ariel's head was nestled on his shoulder and she mumbled in agreement. They slumped on an old Chesterfield couch he'd found in an alley, while five meters before them a sixty-three inch Fujitsu Plasmavision television glowed from it's unceremonious perch upon a wooden sawhorse. On the perfect letterboxed screen, Sisko was now in Odo's Security Office, bargaining with Quark.

"You need to build an AV room to hang this in." remarked Ariel as she reached for a blue slurpy she'd set on the couch's wobbly armrest.

"Uh-huh, yeah. And with room for a Space Invaders arcade game. Yeah, and maybe a pool table."

"Oh, I suck at pool."

"All the better then, we'll play for clothes."

"You wish. Hey, wanna make-out?"

His eye swiveled from the frustrated Ferengi to her comely face, as plasma shadows danced across her cheeks and forehead in chromatic swirls, "How _dare_ you desecrate the holy sanctity of Deep Space Nine by suggesting we engage in sexual relations during the premiere showing of the pilot. On DVD no less."

"You can call me Dax if you like."

The popcorn bowl flew high as he tackled her to the cushions.

_Nine blocks away..._

The bus rumbled in neutral behind them as the two siblings stared across at each other sullenly. Faith finally gave in and spoke, "So you sure you won't stay? We've got plenty of room."

"I'm not livin in a subway station, no offense."

"Some taken." Faith scowled, "But you're really going back to Dad?" her brow furrowed, "Really?"

"He's not the way he was anymore, sis, he's changed."

"Yeah right. _Sure_ he is."

"He _is_." and Hope frowned, "People can change, Faith, they really can. Look at you."

The older Slayer frowned down at her feet, "Yeah, well, maybe. But still..."

"It was what happened to Mom." Hope said slowly, her eyes growing hard, "After I...after she was gone, he stopped drinking. He's different, you should come back and visit sometime. He wants to see you."

"I dunno. It would be weird..."

"It's your choice."

The bus honked it's horn and both of them looked round in anoyment, "Just a damn minute!" they yelled in unison and the driver winced back.

"Are ya gonna be okay?" asked Hope, "You're still limping." she swallowed, "I thought you were dead when I woke up to all those people screaming around us on the basketball court."

"We Slayers are pretty tough to kill, despite what some people might tell ya."

"That's right!" and Hope grinned, "I'm strong like you now, so you don't have to worry about Dad. Even if he wanted to, I could knock him flat, just like you did at the bar."

Faith gaped at her, "He-He _told_ you what I did? No way?"

"Heh, he laughs about it now. You really should come visit us, sis."

"Hmmm, maybe I will. But you better go, or the bus to Boston is going to leave without you. You got enough cash?"

"You gave me a thousand bucks, Faith, more then enough to get rid of that stupid Initiative tat." then she grinned, "But maybe another five-"

Faith pushed her forward, "Get outa here, before I kick your ass."

"You mean before I kick _yours_. Later, Slayer." and Hope jogged forward and pounded up the steps. The door whizzed shut behind her and a moment later the bus pulled out of the station.

Faith stood under the beams of the setting sun and watched it vanish around the corner...

The cement slab slid into the wall and Faith stepped through into the Reserve Station. Xander looked up from the couch wide-eyed, then rolled off of Ariel and stood, "Heh, didn't think you'd be returning so soon."

"You two really need to get a room." she moved to the corner they'd designated for weapons storage and began digging for stakes.

"And we will, soon as I can get the lumber to build one."

Ariel smoothed down her shirt and climbed free of the couch. She raised a flaxen eyebrow and pushed the wavy hair out of her eyes, hooked it over her ears, "So...you guys are staying?"

Faith and Xander looked at her curiously. The Slayer frowned, "What do you mean? Staying where? Here in the Station? Of course we are. After giving up two thirds of the fifty G's to you guys I sure ain't springin for another cheesy hotel room."

"No, I mean in New York."

Xander frowned, "Why would we leave?"

"Um, because the Initiative is packed up and gone, Ethan Rayne is dust, and the Calyx is buried under the seventeen metric tons of cement it took to fill in the Time's Square crater. Guys, your mission is over. Don't you remember, you came here to find me, 'cause you thought I was a Slayer. Well, I'm not, so..."

"So?" asked Faith.

Ariel fought not to let her voice shake, she'd been dreading bringing this up but it wasn't like she had a choice, "So...shouldn't you be getting back home, or something? To that Giles guy, and Buffy?"

"Why would we do that?" asked Xander, "This is our home. Haven't you noticed?"

She blushed nervously and looked away, "I dunno. I just thought-"

He caught her chin and turned her back to face him, smiled, "You thought wrong. We aren't going nowhere, _this_ is where we belong now, this is where we're needed. You think Rayne and your mom were the only ones out there looking to raise hell in the Big Apple? Jeez, Ari, the trouble is only starting, trust me."

"S-So you're going to stay?" she asked, her eyes wet.

"Yeah, we're staying. This city needs us. And I need _you_."

She grinned and hugged him tight. He returned the embrace and Faith rolled her eyes.

"Oh jeez, I think I'm gonna hurl. Look, Ariel, come on, we're going on Patrol."

The blonde broke from Xander reluctantly and wiped at her eyes, "Patrol? What's that?"

"It's part of a Slayer's duty. I'm supposed to go out every night and survey the local graveyards for vampire activity."

Ariel gaped, "What, all of them? Do you know how many cemetaries New York has? Maybe hundreds."

Faith twirled a stake in either hand and jammed them into her belt, "Then we'd better get started."

"Okay!" and Ariel jogged off and dug in the weapons heap for an axe. Faith looked to Xander, "You coming?"

"Nah," he shook his head, "I'm bushed, gonna head off to bed. But I want a full report in the morning."

"Yes, boss." Faith snapped up a rude salute.

He frowned as Ariel hustled past him toward the door, pulling on her jacket, "Later, babe! Wish us luck!" and she vanished through.

Faith headed after her, then paused for a second, "Oh right, almost forgot." and she dug in her pocket, "I stopped by the Plaza Hotel on the way back to see if they ever found any of our stuff, but all they could locate was this letter." she pulled a battered envelope free and set it on the card table, "It's got your name on it, so lucky you." then she was gone.

Xander stared across the Station at the manilla rectangle. His gaze darkened and he fidgeted for a long moment. "Yeah, lucky me..." but he gave in and went to it.

He picked it up and studied the writing, instantly recognizing the penmanship. The heart dotting the 'I' in 'Harris' was a dead giveaway. In a way, he'd sort of hoped it had been lost permanently while they were off in the other reality, but so much for [i]that[/i] easy way out. Angel had gone to alot of trouble to deliver it though, and it was only a letter after all, how dangerous could it be?

"Lots..." he muttered, _I don't think she ever really forgave me, and now she's gone and she never will._

"Oh well." he broke the seal and tore it open, dug inside and pulled out the single sheet of paper within. The page was off-white now and water had leaked in to spot it here and there, but the hand-written message was fully intact, and he slowly sat down on milk crate and spread it over his knees.

_Dear Xander_, it read in Cordelia Chase's florid and over-blown script which he remembered so well from lots of notes stuck into lockers during the short but turbulent highschool courtship.

_If you are reading this then I am already dead. Hey, isn't that SUCH a cliché? How lame do I sound in this, I mean wow! I always hated overly-hokey mellowdramatic movies, and now guess what, I'm living starring in one._

_Or, I was starring in one. I guess if my life is a movie the credits have started to role and this letter I'm writing to you is one of those final wrap-uppy__scenes they stick at the end as sort of a final teaser for those few really dedicated movie geeks who linger in the theat__r__e until the rest of the normal sane people are gone, just on the very slight chance there might be just a little bit more to the story then was generally thought._

_And if I was going to have a moment like that, which I guess, yeah, I am right now, then I wish you were here with me to share it, Xander Harris. Because I'm really, really scared..._

And he chewed his lip as his shoulders slumped, and after taking a deep breath to hold back his emotions as best he could, Xander continued to read the epitaph of the first woman he had ever truly loved, if only for a brief moment in time...

**The End of Slayers: Three of a Kind...  
**


End file.
